


Seeking for Freedom

by YuuAyA



Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, I Tried, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Bad At Titles, M/M, Mental Anguish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-22 16:24:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 94,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9615854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YuuAyA/pseuds/YuuAyA
Summary: Fire-Fist Ace have been keeping one major secret away from Whitebeard; his Oyaji, Marco; his lover, and all of his siblings on board the Moby Dick. And he intend to keep it that way, there isn't any need for him to paint an even larger target on his back... Right?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is kind of AU but will sort of follow the original One Piece story line to some extend.
> 
> Warning that my grammar is still atrocious and no beta.

 

**Flash of lighting, separating the sky in half and being reflated off the blade of the knife that sliced through muscles.**

**A sharp gasp. "W-What?"**

**Greedy boisterous laughter being covered by the deafening thunder, somehow he still manages to hear it. Sending chills down his spine, filling his body with nothing but dread, and notifying him that this whole situation wouldn't end well.**

**The world started spinning, dissolving everything, leaving him in darkness. That lasted for a few minutes.**

**With a flash of bright light, the darkness changed. Before he could orientate himself, a piercing scream break the silent in the air. A scream filled with so much despair that he felt like he is being dunk into the cold ocean.**

**Intangible words soon filled the air, people shouting and screaming, pointing out directions, people running around.**

**It's so chaotic that he doesn't know where to look. Finally making up his mind, he wouldn't know how long this will last, might as well look at the most important piece of information where he will finally understand what is going on.**

**Getting a good view, it's only after he witness the whole thing did he noticed the distinct metallic smell that is no other than blood.**

**The weak apologetic smile on the pale face made him take a few steps back. The tears flowed down without him realising.**

**This can't be happening. This shouldn't even happen!**

**"It's too late."**

**"You're lying! Do something!"**

**"I can't feel a pulse! Rigor motis have already set in! We can't do anything for him!"**

**"NNNOOOOO!"**

**His view is getting blurry, notifying him that the scene is either going to change soon or it's ending. As the scene slowing dissolve, he managed to overhear the most important information that he needed.**  


 

 

* * *

 

 

 

  
  
Thinking about the last sentence that he managed to hear before everything dissolve, his heart pounded so hard as if he had been running for hours. The sentence continued repeating in his mind, as if his brain is trying to make sure that he never forget what he heard.

 

The hand that landed on his shoulder made him tense up, he is still disorientated from what he had seen.

 

Is he surrounded by enemies? Or is he surrounded by friends? He can't remember.

 

"Hey, are you okay? You're shaking." The familiar voice is just inches away from his ear. Usually with him being this disorientated, he would have attacked the first person and bring them down till he remember where he is. And in this situation, he found the voice familiar meant that he is in friendly company and he didn't need to protect himself.

 

"Don't worry. I'm fine, just slightly sleepy. Maybe I should head back to my room to rest for a while." he answered.

 

Breaking away from those hands who are still grabbing him; no doubt that those mother-hens want to escort him back to his room, he quickly fled. Knowing full well that he doesn't look too well.

 

There's no need to worry the others. There's no need to put more things onto their plates.

 

After all he was the one who was born with this curse, he have the responsibility to solve this problem. Especially when the person who started this whole thing is a member of his Division.

 

Slamming the door shut without thinking about it, he locked the door for extra 'security'. He have to focus all of his attention on creating a plan and he can't do that when there will be people barging into his room and trying to figure out what happened or just trying to baby him.

 

There are a lot of things which he had to do, he will need to find out what is the cause for the incident, after that he will need to try and figure out when that incident is going to happen

 

There are tons of things which he had to do, he had to find out what is the cause for the incident, find out why; depending on the reason he might be able to prevent the whole incident from ever happening, make sure that his plan will work, make sure that he had gotten everything that he needed and stay alert until it's time.

 

But first thing first, he need to start making the plan.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Staring at his brother whom had just **_fled_** , this has never happened before. Turning his attention onto the broom that his brother had dumped onto him before fleeing, it seems like he will need to assign another person to take over the forgotten chores.

 

Not that anyone will mind once he informed them that their brother is feeling unwell and have retreated to his room to rest.

 

But what he had witness worried him.

 

“Thatch, what’s going on yoi? And where is Ace?” Turning his head to look at his older brother and closest friend walking in his direction.

 

“He isn’t feeling that well and have went into his room to rest.” He answered, the frown never leaving his face.

 

Even Marco started frowning at what he heard, it took a while before Marco continued, “There’s something more to this.”

 

Nodding his head, “Let me ask someone to take over Ace’s job before we talk about it in your room.” Thatch answered before the both of them split up. Marco should know how serious this situation is just by his reaction, and knew that they will be having a long talk.

 

“Hey Jack, Ace isn’t feeling well is resting back in his room. Do you mind taking over Ace’s chores?” Thatch asked the first brother who he come across.

 

“He isn’t feeling well? Sure I’ll do them, make sure to send him to the infirmary for a check-up later on will ya?”

 

Giving a thumbs up as an answer, he quickly rush off in the direction of Marco’s room. Thankfully no one stopped him to either talk to him or try to talk him out of setting up his pranks, he need to tell Marco about their brother’s weird actions because he will just over think things and might angered their youngest brother.

 

Opening the door without knocking on it, what’s the use when his best friend already knew that they are going to talk? Setting down on the chair that was meant for him, Thatch took a while to gather his thoughts and where he should begin and Marco just wait.

 

“Ace stopped in the middle of doing his chores.” He started, “I thought that something might have gotten his attention but there’s nothing worth seeing, I thought it might have been another attack but Ace didn’t drop. So I got worried and head over there, only to find Ace’s pale face and shaking.”

 

When Marco nodded his head to prompt him, “When he snapped out of it, he didn’t answer anything and just _fled_. He **fled** away from me Marco!”

 

Settling back into his chair with one of his eyebrow raised, now Marco could understand why Thatch wanted to have this talk in his room, away from everyone’s ears. Everyone will be so worried if they hear this.

 

The Ace that they know is someone who will never turn his back from a fight or run away from anything even if the situation would end in his death, they had a glimpse of that trait during the first fight Oyaji had with the brat and the next hundred days with Ace trying to take Oyaji’s head had them know that Ace will never stop till he is either dead or he finally changed his mind.

 

“That is strange yoi.”

 

Shooting a worried look at his brother and closest friend, “Marco, do you think there is anything that we can do?”

 

Shaking his head, “We don’t know what truly happen at that time, the only thing we could do right now is to keep an eye on Ace.” Pausing for a moment, “We shouldn’t tell anyone about this yet, it wouldn’t be good to alarm Ace yoi. If we notice anything alarming, we will tell everyone. Including Oyaji yoi.”

 

Staring blankly at Marco for a while, Thatch agreed. While the Commanders do know how they should act when they have to keep tabs on someone however Ace’s instinct is inhumane, he always know when someone is staring at him, knew when people are following him, basically Ace just gives all of them the feeling that he never let his guards down even when he is among family.

 

“It should be easy I guess? Since the both of us are close to him.”

 

Snorting at Thatch’s uncertain tone, “We can try, after all he should think that we were worried about what happened yoi. It should be okay.”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Staring at the white piece of paper that had been sitting in front of him for the past few hours, Ace couldn’t help but throw his hands up and groan out in defeat. Without knowing the cause for the incident, there’s no way where he could come up with a plan that is flawless enough to make sure nothing screws up.

 

Belly flopping onto the unmade bed, looks like he will need to wait for _that person_ to come back before he could create any plan. Thank goodness the wait shouldn’t take too long, after _that person_ comes back, he will need to do something to touch either _that person_ or the things that had been touched.

 

Again, that shouldn’t be too difficult. Every one of them are assigned chores to do; even the commanders, therefore he shouldn’t have any troubles.

 

Unless someone is keeping an eye on him. That would make things difficult, winching when he remembered his reaction just now, no doubt that Thatch and Marco will be keeping an eye on him.

 

Thinking about it for a while, he quickly shrugged it off. He will just have to put on a show during dinner to show his close friend and lover that everything is normal and that he really was just ‘unwell’. Taking a quick glance at his alarm, Ace decided that there’s enough time for him to have a quick nap before dinner comes. He will need his ‘energy’ if he had to act as if nothing is wrong.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

****

**_A familiar cracking sound._ **

****

**_Smoke so thick that it caused him to cough uncontrollably._ **

****

**_Blades whining as they clashed against one another._ **

****

**_Battle screams, screams of panic, commands being shouted out through the chaos._ **

****

**_“SABO!”_ **

****

**_Luffy. His baby brother is screaming. But the voice sounds too young to be his baby brother._ **

****

**_What is going on?_ **

****

**_Another scream. This time filled with pain._ **

****

**_Another scream. One that is filled with so much pain and oh so familiar to him._ **

****

**_“SABO!”_ **

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

“-ce, Ace wake up yoi.”

 

Snapping his eyes open, it’s been a while since he dream about the day when Sabo; his brother, nearly died.

 

“Ace, are you okay yoi? You’re shaking.” Marco asked, quickly placing a hand on Ace’s shoulder to try and anchor his lover down. While his younger lover have never confessed, Marco knew that he suffers from nightmares occasionally and had to wake the younger brat up before whatever nightmare his lover have turns bad.

 

Weakly pushing himself up, Ace couldn’t help but curse when he notice his body is still shaking. “Y-Ya, I’m okay.”

 

“Another nightmare yoi?” Marco settled down onto Ace’s bed, wanting to see if Ace would share what the nightmare is about. When Marco realise Ace is still tense from the nightmare, he slowly rubbed Ace’s back, hopping this will be able to calm his fire-brat down.

 

It took a while before the tension in Ace’s body disappear, “Ya, another nightmare. One that I haven’t had in a long time.”

 

“Want to talk about it yoi? It might make you feel better but if you don’t want to, it’s okay.”

 

Thinking about it for a while, “I told you about my brothers before right?”

 

“Sabo and Luffy?” Marco couldn’t help the smile from appearing on his face. Once Ace have gotten pass his stubbornness and joined them, it didn’t take the others long to hear Ace talking about his two other brothers. Whenever others complain about Ace being too reckless, giving others heart-attacks, Ace love to bring up the stories about his two other brothers. Telling everyone about the troubles that Luffy always get into, forcing Sabo and him to clean up the mess.

 

As if knowing what he is thinking, Ace give him a blinding smile. “Who else?” however the smile soon dropped from Ace’s face. “While I did tell all of you about the mischief that Luffy got into and how Sabo and I had to clean it up, there are times that we did get into such deep shit that it nearly killed us cleaning them up.”

 

Chills went down Marco’s mind the moment his brain process what he had just heard, his brain producing the worst case scenario.

 

“I have to confess that most of those times are because of Gramps’ training, they weren’t humane.” Huffing out at his memories of all the trainings they had to go through, “But there is one where I seriously thought that we shouldn’t have been alive.”

 

“Which one is it yoi?” Keeping his eyes on Ace.

 

It’s always dangerous to ask Ace talk about his past; not about the troubles he had gotten into with his brothers, everyone beside Oyaji and him do not know about this tiny piece of information because Ace didn’t want to tell anyone about it. Oyaji knew about it when Ace finally decided to join them and confessed about his heritage that was the only thing that Ace confessed yet Oyaji knew about the ‘demons’ that Ace is fighting.

 

Ace had been the one to tell him. Stating that since the both of them are in a relationship now, they shouldn’t be keeping any secrets between them, and Marco could understand the reason. Really, he did the moment he heard the ‘secret’.

 

With Gol. D. Roger as his father, the Marines and civilians keeping an eye out for anyone who resemble Roger, it’s a miracle that Ace managed to survive until he met them. Maybe without Garp’s help of hiding Ace away, there’s a high chance where Ace would have been killed before he live through the age of 4.

 

Not only is his life being targeted, Ace is painting large targets on those who are around him, even with Oyaji’s status as a Yonko wouldn’t keep them safe. His status as Ace’s lover will make everything worse.

 

With their inability to have a child, they didn’t have to worry about their child or children having to go through what Ace had to experience during his childhood.

 

“Sabo never really like or embraced his heritage and ran away from home when he was only six years old. We met in the Grey Terminal and became friends because we hit off really well, we were only seven at that point of time. Luffy joined us three years later, with another mouth to feed we had to do whatever we could to survive and save up enough money to buy our ship, during those times Sabo’s father never gave up his search for him. Everything was fine until Sabo’s father found us while we were escaping when we were 11 years old, in order to get his heir back Sabo’s father paid some shady people to do it.”

 

As Ace paused here to take in a deep breath, Marco never once stop rubbing his lover’s back, wanting to make Ace as physically comfortable as possible as the battle with the ‘demons’ continued.

 

“Those shady people had burnt the forest down, believing that it will flush us out as we live in the forest. The fight turned into a battle for both survival and time, the battle lasted for way too long even if we had the bandit leader; Dadan’s, help. While my attention focused on the leader, Sabo had to stay by Luffy’s side to make sure he wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the others. Without anyone noticing, Sabo was thrown into the fire by one of the underlings.”

 

Freezing up, Marco found it hard to breathe. It’s true that the flames from his zoan Devil Fruit isn’t warm and he can’t use it as an attack as it doesn’t burn like Ace’s Mera Mera no Mi since it is mainly used for healing the injuries he sustain during battles, sadly it doesn’t cover the pain he experience.

 

Marco had spent a long time to make sure he doesn’t react to the pain, it wouldn’t do any good if Oyaji and the others realise this flaw (those mother-hens wouldn’t allow him to take on any attacks aimed for them) and he had the unpleasant experience of being burnt alive once.

 

(The Marines had ambushed them while they were docked on an island where most of the crew were out having fun, leaving those who were on watch outnumbered and trying their best to keep their home safe. Thank goodness he had stayed behind due to the overflowing paperwork accumulated, none of the Marine was strong enough to land a hit on him therefore they decided to try burning him alive.)

 

Ace turned his head to make eye contact with Marco, “I can never forget the screams from both Luffy and Sabo. Especially Sabo when he was being burn alive, I froze and wasn’t able to do anything to help Sabo, Dadan was the one to help him. It’s a miracle that all of us survived the fight but we had to hide from the Marines that the shady people called, it took two weeks before it was safe enough for us to head out. Due to the long wait, there were nothing much which the doctors could do except to bandage the wounds up and pray that they would heal. Dadan’s hands were badly burnt, took her a few years of intensive physical therapy before she could use her hands like she used to as for Sabo, it took nearly a year before the bandages leave his body, took half a year before he could move around without screaming and his left eye was so badly damaged that he could hardly see anything out of that eye.”

 

It took a while before Marco could kick-start his brain to say anything, “But all of you survived right? Isn’t that the most important thing yoi?” Giving what he hope is a comforting smile, he didn’t want to let Ace get stuck in the ‘regrets’ portion instead of looking at the outcome.

 

“True.” A weak smile was returned.

 

Marco will count that as a win, letting the silence dragged on for a while and to let whatever he just said to sink in. “Come on yoi, let’s grab our dinner before Thatch demand everyone to search for us.”

 

Ace’s rumbling stomach and laughter brought a smile to Marco’s face as he pulled the both of them to the dining room.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Covering his mouth with the sleeve of his kimono; making sure that the cloth doesn’t touch his lips, “What’s that oaf worried about?” Izo asked, keeping his eyes on their Head Chief who continued pacing in the space available between the two tables.

 

“Marco and Ace aren’t here yet.” Vista answered, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

 

“And?”

 

“You know that Ace never skips his meals.” Vista answered.

 

Rolling his head, “You stupid oaf, there’s nothing to worry about. Maybe Marco and Ace want to spend some time alone.” Pulling Thatch to the table that commander uses and forced him to sit down.

 

“But-“

 

Izo never let the man finish his sentence, “No buts.” Glaring at Thatch to make his point, “If they aren’t here within 15 minutes, you’ll go and collect them.”

 

Thatch isn’t too happy with Izo’s demand sadly he couldn’t do anything unless he wanted his hair to be destroyed by Izo’s fan.

 

“Come on Thatch, Izo could be right that Marco and Ace just wanted some time alone. We all know that Marco had been swamp with paperwork and the both of them couldn’t spare anytime to be together or even talk about anything beside work.” Haruta added, hoping that this would be able to calm down his older brother.

 

“Ya, you’re right. Sorry.” Thatch give a weak smile before he start on the food placed in front of him.

 

Izo continued his observation on Thatch, he _knew_ that there’s something wrong.

 

With over a thousand member on their crew, it’s nearly impossible to get close with every single person but this is slightly different for the Commanders. Each with their own division to lead, the other commanders will step in to help with their brother or sister who just made to the new rank, there are times where they will face a problem where it’s hard to solve or they are too busy with other things and would need another commander to step in.

 

With the additional fact that they work together so damn much, it’s natural that they are close with one another and know when someone is hiding something away from them. And with Thatch being Thatch; someone who can’t hide his emotions away from everyone, Izo knew that Thatch is hiding something away from them.

 

A gentle almost non-existence nudge at his side made Izo tear his eyes away from Thatch. Without saying a single thing or even looking at him, Izo understood what Namur is telling him. All of them knew and agree with his deduction, Thatch is hiding something from all of them but if Izo kept on looking at Thatch like this, their Head Chief will raise his guards.

 

Rolling his eyes, Izo turned his attention back to his half-finished dinner. He might not like having information being kept away from him,

 

Huffing out softly, Izo turned his attention back to his half-finished dinner. Izo might not like having information kept from him but he do know that there are times where he shouldn’t push. This is the case right now, if Thatch doesn’t want to tell them anything, there’s nothing which they could do to make him talk.

 

A loud rumbling sound soon reached everyone’s ears, most of t hem couldn’t stop the laughter from escaping. There’s only two person who they know will be able to create such a monstrous sound, one of them is Oyaji who is sitting with them eating his own dinner and the other one is Ace whose stomach will rumble whenever he is hungry at any time.

 

(There’s once when everyone thought they were under attack, causing them to rush around the whole ship to find nothing and linked it back to the Commanders’ room. That’s where they found out that it’s Ace’s stomach that caused the loud noises and it only stopped when Oyaji and Marco coaxed the brat up to eat whatever Thatch managed to create half asleep.)

 

“Looks like our trouble-maker and his care-taker is here.” Rakuyo whispered out causing those who are near him to chock on their food or spitting out whatever is in their mouth.

 

That’s what Marco and Ace see when they walk in, people chocking on their food while others trying their best to help them. Turning to one another, they shrugged it off, not wanting to bring any more work to themselves if possible.

 

“Marco! Ace! I’ve already grabbed your food for you!” Thatch shouted out, waving his hand franticly to catch their attention.

 

Upon hearing what Thatch said, Ace quickly pull Marco to the empty seats.

 

The moment Ace sit down, he started stuffing all of the food into his mouth, it feels like everything had returned to normal. Izo screaming at Ace to slow down before the juices from the meat splatter onto his kimono, Thatch and the rest laughing and Marco ignoring everything else to enjoy his meal.

 

It feels so normal that everyone forgot the fact that Thatch had hidden something from them and that Thatch forgot the conversation he had with Marco about Ace’s strange behaviour. That’s the out-come Ace needed and wanted, he will need to be as normal as possible before he could do anything to prevent whatever he had seen happening.

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Grammar that might and will make you cringe, didn't proof-read this chapter!

 

 

_"Hey, did you know?"_

_"Know what?"_

_"Whitebeard's Second Division Commander betrayed them!"_

_"Second Division Commander? You mean Fire-Fist Ace?"_

_"Ya, that dude. Heard that he had killed off one of Whitebeard's son and badly injured another!"_

_"A-Are you serious? I know that Fire-Fist is strong but to do something like that?! Is he searching for a death sentence?"_

_"God knows what goes through pirates' mind. Anyway, I heard that the Whitebeards are all fishing for information about Fire-Fist._

_"Glad to know that FIre-Fist didn't decide to come to this island to hide away from them."_

_"Agree. Would like to view the fight but it isn't good to be near when the Strongest Man in the World is fighting."_

* * *

 

 

 

 

Never in Edward Newgate’s wildest dream would he ever expect to experience the same silence he remembered when he first set sail as the Captain of his own crew. With a gigantic ship and over a thousand members, there are tons of chores to do be done, his children catching up with their friends, receiving commands from their Division Commanders or just his children getting into trouble, there are always sound generated on the ship be it mops or brooms hitting the wooden walls, his children chit-chatting around the ship or echoing screams from Thatch’s main victims. It’s nearly impossible where there will be a silent day.

 

Until now.

 

All of his children who are not on watch have parked themselves in front of the door leading to the infirmary, where his daughters and son are working on Thatch and where Teach’s body lie. As much as he wanted to figure out the whole situation, sadly no one seems to know what actually happened.

 

All they could tell him is that they heard loud noises; like someone had accidentally set off the fireworks they saved for countdowns, when his children came up onto the deck to extinguish the fireworks before it burn the deck, they found Thatch lying in his pool of blood and Teach’s badly burnt body lying a few feet away.

 

The Commanders immediately take charge of the scene, Thatch was rushed to the infirmary, Vista came to wake him up and the others did a quick check around to make sure no one else was injured. Thankfully no one else was.

 

Once everything was settled and everyone gathered together; to see if anyone know just what the **_hell_** is going on, strangely enough, Ace wasn’t among them; the other person besides Marco who have the power over fire. This piece of information sent chills down everyone’s spine, thinking of the worst case scenario, when no one could find their Second Division Commander, the information slowly to sink in. 

 

The only possible reason for Ace's disappearance is that he had betrayed them, Teach’s badly burnt body was the only prove that they needed and the blaming begins.

 

“Striker isn’t at its usual spot, Ace’s belongings are all missing from their usual position in his room.” Jozu pointed out as soon as he settle down onto his seat in the meeting room.

 

Slamming both of his hands onto the table, “He betrayed us!” Izo roared out, murder intent in his eyes.

 

“Izo, calm down. We don’t know the situation well enough to label Ace as Thatch’s and Teach’s attacker yoi.”

 

“Marco, you’re not fooling everyone, Teach’s body was burnt! Your fire does nothing but heal your wounds, and the only other person who have abilities over fire isn’t here, sitting with us and trying to figure this out!”

 

“Enough!” Slamming the bottom of his bisento against the floor, Whitebeard wanted to stop this argument before it gets out of hand and Izo said things which he doesn’t mean.

 

“We do not know whether Ace is really the main culprit, there is a high chance where one of our enemies are the ones behind Thatch’s injuries and Teach’s death.” Whitebeard reasoned out, needing to be the voice of reason in this situation.

 

“How do you explain Striker’s disappearance and Ace’s missing belongings?” Izo snapped back.

 

“Izo!” Namur hissed out. Knowing full well that Izo is letting his anger get to his head however it isn’t a good excuse to be rude to their Oyaji.

 

“It might be the work of Marines.” Haruta muttered out, so deep in thoughts that he didn’t realize he gained everyone’s attention, “Firstly they could have kept taps on our ship, following us at a safe distance and trying to find a good time to board Moby. Plus yesterday night we had a crazy storm where no one is allowed on deck, the rain will cut down on the visual view of those who are on watch and anyone could sneak up on us once they found the weak point. Judging from Thatch and Teach’s wounds, it look like someone jumped Thatch and stab him, Teach should have seen the attack and jumped in to fight off the offender, getting himself killed.”

 

“What about Teach’s body being burnt?” Izo argue back.

 

“It was done so that we _**will**_ pin this incident on Ace.” Jiru whispered out, catching on what Haruta is trying to say.

 

“But that still doesn’t explain Striker and Ace’s belongings!”

 

Looking at each other, Haruta and Jiru didn’t know how to explain that portion of the puzzle.

 

“Remember the fireworks being set off yoi?” Marco started, when everyone nodded, “With the rain it’s impossible to light it up on the deck, so Ace must have stumble across the scene and realize what is going on, light up the fireworks to warn us and he might have seen the ship that is escaping. Fearing that the blame will be on him, Ace could have gone to chase the offenders and catch them on his own to prove that he wasn’t the one who had attack Thatch fatally and killed Teach yoi.”

 

“That sort of makes sense.” Kingdew whispered out as his brain process everything.

 

“Isn’t Ace supposed to be strong? Would he take so long to chase down some people?” Izo continued.

 

“Izo, you know that anything could happen out on sea. And with the crazy rain yesterday, I wouldn’t be surprise that Ace have to stop his chase and seek shelter at an island. Remember, he is out there **_alone_**.” Haruta pointed out, giving his older brother a glare.

 

When he realize that no one is standing on his side, Izo huffed out, “Fine, what are we going to do now?” Deciding to go with everyone’s speculation for now.

 

This question had everyone turn their head towards their Captain, wanting to know what their next move is.

 

“For now, we need to contact all the island under our control and our allies, ask them to keep an eye out for Ace. If they see Ace or he went to them to stock up, they should try to delay him as much as possible and if they couldn’t, they should gather as much information about his plans as they possibility could before Ace leave. While we wait, we should also keep our eyes out and wait for Thatch to regain consciousness to see if he have any information for us.” Whitebeard ordered.

 

As everyone disperse to carry out the orders, each Commander will clasp their hand on Marco’s shoulder to give him some comfort. When Blamenco closes the door, only Marco and Oyaji remain in the meeting room.

 

As the silence dragged on for a few minutes, Whitebeard didn’t break it, knowing full well that his oldest child is using this time to form whatever he needed to say or ask him.

 

Covering his face with both of his palm, Marco couldn’t believe what is happening to him right now.

 

What if Izo had been correct all along? That Ace had been the one to harm Thatch and kill Teach? Hadn’t Ace changed his mind after the hundred days he spent trying to take Oyaji’s head? Didn’t he somehow managed to change the stubbornness in Ace? Was the smiles and interaction Ace had with all of them all just an act to make them lower down their guards? What about the relationship Ace have with him? Did the both of them get together so Ace could get information about them or was it to just make him lower his guard?

 

There are just so many questions with no answers to swarming in his mind, clouding his vision till he couldn’t differentiate right from left. The last two questions had frozen him from the inside, he might never recover if Ace is really just using him.

 

“Son.” Whitebeard clasped his hand on his shoulder, bringing him out of his dark thoughts.

 

“Do you think that Ace do it yoi?”

 

“I don’t really know.” Whitebeard confessed, not wanting to hide anything, “There is just too many questions and so little answer. All we can do is to just wait and see if Ace will come back to us on his own or when we manage to get a hold on him. With the location of the wound on Thatch, there’s a high chance where he wouldn’t even know what happen.”

 

“Let’s hope that he did see something and provide the answer to some questions yoi.”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Stumbling onto the isolated island that is just a few hours away from the New World’s border, he have been travelling non-stop for 15 hours. Pushing himself pass his limits, running on fumes for five hours he **_had_**  to put more distance between the Moby Dick and himself, without a doubt that his family must be looking for him.

 

While he could have stop at any of the isolated island found in the New World with the thoughts of Marco being spent out to chase after him is enough to push for an island **outside** of New World's border. Islands with civilian life are out of the question, no way in hell he would want to leave any clues for his family to track him down.

 

Now that he think about it, it’s a miracle that he didn’t have a single narcolepsy attack while he is travelling, could it be the adrenaline coursing through his body that stop his narcolepsy attacks? He will need to see if it’s true.

 

But now, he need to put some food into his stomach and rest for the remaining journey that he need to make. Making quick work of pulling Striker inland (he didn’t need his only boat to drift away when the tide rises), catching his supper/breakfast/lunch (thank God wild boars could be found on this island), and cooking his food (it didn’t take long to cook with his Devil Fruit), everything was done within two hours.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

“Oyaji, we contacted everyone. Their eyes are peeled for any sightings of Ace.” Atoms reported, making sure that he didn’t make eye contact with the other commanders who are standing or sitting around Oyaji’s throne.

 

Nodding his head at Atoms to thank him for his hard work, “Is there any update on Thatch’s condition?”

 

“No. He is still being worked on.” Atoms answered

 

Silently nodding his head, Whitebeard silently prayed. Praying to whatever God that is out there who is willing to listen to someone who never truly believed in them and fulfill his wishes. Praying for his son’s safety, praying that they will find his wayward son, praying that Thatch will heal from those injuries without any consequences that will end his career as a pirate, pray that his oldest son will get through this whole situation and pray that this whole thing will be resolve as soon as possible and without any complications.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Making sure that the foliage hides him from view, he didn’t need anyone; be it any pirates or Marines or even his family, to notice him while he falls asleep. God knows that once he falls asleep nothing but a cannonball or the smell of cooked food will wake him up.

 

Now that he didn’t have to worry about being found, the adrenaline slowly fades away and time to think, the situation **_finally_** sinks in.

 

How panicked his family members are when they stumble across Thatch’s body lying in a pool of blood, how revolting the charred body belonging to Teach must be. How his family will scramble across their home to verify the safety of their brothers and sisters on watch. What expression would be on Oyaji’s face when he see the extent of his children’s injuries; knowing one whose pirating career might end due the his injuries and the other is dead due to a sneak attack instead of a battle.

 

How the others will park themselves outside of the infirmary as they waited for updates from their doctors and nurses as they work on Thatch, the self-blaming flashing through their brain as the agonizing wait drags on. The Commanders gathering together for an urgent meeting, when they realize that he isn’t there. How they will take the news that his belongings are not where they usually will be in the room used by him, what their reaction will be when they noticed Striker is missing.

 

The excruciating distress they will go through when they finally figure out that he betrayed them, being the one who had killed Teach and harm Thatch. Will they blame Marco?

 

 ** _Oh God_** , Marco.

 

His best friend is seriously injured, his lover is missing and labelled as a traitor, even if Marco wouldn’t and couldn’t let any situation get to him due to his position as the First Division Commander and the First Mate doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be affected!

 

All of his focus was on making sure that Thatch will survive through the horror he have no control over, making sure that Teach will not survive another day to span his repulsive terror to the whole world that he didn’t notice the stressful situation he is putting Marco through!

 

The image of Marco’s usual calm and lazy expression; the one that he uses to face all kind of situation, crumbled down, the piercing eyes that always assess the situation, that never reveal any emotions that he is feeling, broadcasting the agony he feels when his lover is branded as a traitor.

 

Shuddering uncontrollably, **what have he done?**

 

**_WHAT THE HELL HAVE HE DONE?!_ **

 

Oh _God_.

 

Tears of anger swelled up at the corners of his eyes. Anger not directed at anyone who will blame his lover for not noticing his plans or what he committed but at himself for not being **_OBSERVANT_** enough to comprehend the anguishing hell the love of his life have to go through.

 

Trembling hands rooted through the bag beside him, searching for the only comfort and thing that he allowed himself to being on this escape. Pulling out the item with the sharp corners, Ace stared at the photo he held in his hand.

 

Trembling hand rooted through the bag inside him, searching for the one thing that will comfort him and the only item which he allowed himself to bring on his escape. Pulling out the item with the sharp corners, he willed his fingers to not clench the item too tightly where he might damage the only thing that he have of his love.

 

Staring at the photo he held in his hand, the only photo he allowed his brothers to take of them, the photo that managed to capture the love in Marco’s eyes and the smile meant for him, the only photo that will remind him of the unconditioned love he received from someone who doesn’t care about his heritage.

 

Keeping his eyes on Marco’s figure, _“I’m sorry.”_ The tears that gathered his eyes rolled down his cheek, his cracking voice sounded so strange to his own ears, “I’m so **sorry**.” Repeating the words over and over again, Ace didn’t long how long he spent apologizing to the photograph of his lover, all he could remember is that he continued apologizing till he falls asleep.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

“Nami! How long till we reach Alabasta?!” Monkey. D. Luffy, the captain of the StrawHat pirate crew screamed out, sulking openly due to the boredom he felt.

 

Slapping the back of her hand against her forehead, “He have been asking the same question for the past hour, does the idiot think that by repeating the same question will make the ship go faster?”

 

Chuckling at Nami’s over-dramatic reaction, “Luffy, I remember that his portion of the ocean have some really good fish! Why don’t Usopp, Chopper and you try fishing some for our dinner?” Vivi shouted out, hoping that this is a good distraction for their short-attention-span Captain.

 

Smiling at the cheers he heard and her three friends scrambling around to get the items they would need for fishing and begging for the bait they needed from Sanji.

 

“Vivi, thank you for throwing something for that idiot to do.” Nami smiled.

 

“No problem.” Turning her attention back when she heard the screams of their Captain’s name, Vivi couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of her Captain’s cheek filled to the brim with food; kind of like how a chipmunk will fill his cheeks with food to prepare for winter, and the other two screaming at him for eating the bait meant for fishing.

 

Really, Vivi must thank the Gods for letting her meet such good friends who are willing to help her take back the control over her country even if it meant that they might lose their life while trying to do that.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Waking up from his deep sleep with a parched throat and swollen eyes, it took Ace a while to remember where he is, why he is sleeping on the grass patch instead of on his bed on the Moby Dick and the troubles he had caused back home.

 

With a heavy heart, he set off to catch his breakfast and some extra meat to cure and bring them along on his journey, which he will need to leave within two hours.

 

With a heavy heart, Ace set off to catch his breakfast and some extra meat which he could snack on while he head to the Grandline where his baby brother is. Judging from the position of the sun, he had slept for at least five hours; not the longest sleep he had and it’s not as bad as when he first set sail from Foosha, however it’s long enough for the Moby Dick to lessen the distance which he had pushed himself to create yesterday.

 

With that in mind, he will need to leave this island within two hours. He can’t let himself be caught, even if it meant that he couldn’t go back to the only place he call ‘home’.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

**_“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!”_ **

 

 _“Calm down, I warned you that this a **rumor**_ _that I heard on this island I am at.”_

“Then go and check whether the information is true!”

 

_“ **That** is what I am trying to do, I’m heading to one of the island under Whitebeard’s control.”_

 

 

“Hack, once you have confirmation about the rumor I want you to call me back as soon as possible.” Hanging up the call, he couldn’t help but wondered what the hell his older brother have for a brain. “Really, Ace what the hell were you thinking when you decided to attack two of Whitebeard’s crew? Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Isn’t that what Luffy’s supposed to do?”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy Crap. This has got to be the fastest update I have ever done in my entire life!
> 
> I hope that the scene changing back and forth didn't confuse anyone and the agony is painful enough. I gotta confess that I had a hard time with Ace's portion, it just didn't flow out as smoothly as I wanted. As for Luffy's appearance here, I wanted to give a timeline to this story.
> 
> Not really sure when I will be able to update the next chapter, I have to do my research before I could write chapter 3. I just realized I might need to do some really time skip in the later chapters, if it's possible I'll try my best to not do them, no promises!
> 
> Thank you for read and please do give feedback!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: There might be grammar mistakes and other mistakes that might be in this chapter. Please do notify me about the mistakes that I made!
> 
> Additional warnings: Some of the dialogues were taken from the anime. I had to cause my memory is so terrible that I couldn't remember much about the Alabasta Arc.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at his son; Nixon, walked into the meeting room through the side door that leads to the infirmary, everyone in the room tensed up. “Son, how is Thatch’s condition?” he asked, maybe preparing himself for the worse.

 

“He is stabilize for now. We had to transfuse blood into him while we were trying our best to stop the bleeding, we will need to stock up on some blood and Thatch lost a kidney.” Nixon answered, looking through the documents in his hand.

 

“Lost a _kidney_?” Marco spoke up, “Wouldn’t that threaten his life?”

 

“It wouldn’t. Humans could survive with one working kidney, there might be a slightly higher risk for high blood pressure but that’s rare. But Thatch and we have to keep an eye out for him during a battle to make sure that no harm or injury will happen to the remaining one. It’s also a good idea to create some padding to protect his remaining kidney.” Nixon answered.

 

Sighing out in relief, the tension trapped in his sons’ body all disappears with this piece of good news.

 

“I’ll work on that.” Izo answered.

 

“Thatch wouldn’t suffer from any physical disability?” Whitebeard asked, the one thing which he is worried about.

 

“No, he wouldn’t. His spine didn’t suffer any injuries from the stab wound but he will need physical rehab before he could return back to his kitchen duty.”

 

“When will Thatch wake up?” Curiel asked.

 

“He might wake up in a few days. I can’t be certain about it due to the extreme blood loss he had, it might take a while. I’ll continue updating all of you with his condition.” Nixon nodded his head, returning back to the infirmary where the other nurses are keeping an eye on their brother.

 

“Oyaji?”

 

Turning his head to look at Haruta, Whitebeard knows what he is asking, “Now we wait.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Reaching Nanohana in record time, the lack of destructions around the town and how none of the civilians are complaining about the ‘lunatic who wears a straw hat’ informed him that their baby brother haven’t reach here.

 

Thinking about his next move, should he lock himself up in the hotel room keep his movement to a minimum to prevent anyone from recognizing him or should he take a look around before their baby brother’s brand of madness destroy everything.

 

Come to think about it, when he is still the Spades Captain, they once travelled to Alabasta. Stayed for about a day and a half due to the sudden arrival of some Marines. He haven’t even tried all of the cuisine found only in Alabasta. Tilting his head slightly to the side, Ace nodded his head coming to a conclusion. He should eat his fill before their baby brother did, if he’s worried about his narcolepsy (which is a big clue for his family, who the hell; besides him, falls asleep in the middle of a meal?) he could take his food back to his hotel room and eat it there. Plus he could clean up his face after slamming face first into his plate.

 

Setting on the hotel that catches his eyes among the sea of them, Ace quickly check in, dump his travel bag in the room, checking his cloak to make sure he is covered before he quickly set off in search for food.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“What the _hell_ did you guys try to catch?!” Nami screamed out, looking at the… He? She? Thing? Human? Ah yes, human is a better term who is hanging onto to Karu who had been used as a bait by Luffy and Usopp to catch some dinner for Sanji.

 

Keeping her eyes on the unknown human, Nami tried to process how in the world her idiotic captain and their lying sniper-plus-repairman could catch a **_human_** in the middle of none-where, this situation is just way too suspicious in her mind.

 

Could one of the Baroque Works member noticed them while they were shopping for provisions in Nanohana and decided to check on them or befriend them now only to stab them in the back later on? Those thoughts soon flew out of her mind when the Okama started showing off the Devil Fruit that he/she ate. Changing his/her face to theirs, while it did serve as an entertainment for Usopp, Luffy and Chopper but the way how they took so quickly to the Okama is blood ridiculous in her eyes.

 

Grinding her teeth against one another, this is why she **_need_ ** to use violence against them. Now she will have to keep a close eye on the Okama to make sure they wouldn’t be betrayed, it’s a good thing to know that Zoro would help her with this problem.

 

Just like a tornado, the Okama soon returned back to his own ship (when his crew came to search for him), leaving them on their merry way to Alabasta without worrying about their food shortage or betrayal.

 

“ ** _MR. 2?!”_** everyone screamed out when they process what they heard.

 

“Vivi, you didn’t know his face?!” Luffy questioned.

 

“No, I’ve never met Mr 2 or Mr 1’s partner. But I did heard some rumours.” Sliding down onto the wooden deck, Vivi cracked her head to remember what she had heard from the other members. “Mr 2 is a ballerina with a large frame who talks like a woman. He always wears a swan coat that has “Bon Clay” on the back.”

 

“You should have noticed.” Zoro, Usopp and Luffy deadpanned back.

 

Noticing Vivi’s pale look, “What’s the matter, Vivi?” Luffy asked.

 

Cradling her head, “Among the faces he showed from his past memory… From his memory, I saw my father’s face; the face of Alabasta’s King Nefeltari Cobra.”

 

“If, for example, you could mimic a king you’d be able to do quite bad things too.” Zoro pointed out, showing his intelligence for once.

 

“We let a troublesome guy slip away, huh?” Usopp said.

 

“Then he’s our enemy?” Chopper piped up, turning to look at Usopp who is standing beside him.

 

“He’s certainly quite a problem if he’s on our enemy’s side.” Nami agreed, “If he realizes that we are his enemy. If he transforms into one of us using his memory from earlier, we won’t be able to trust our own friends.”

 

“Ah” Vivi gasped out.

 

“Really? Huh?” Luffy questioned, not understanding the point Nami had pointed out.

 

“Luffy, listen closely-“Nami started, needing to explain how serious this whole situation is.

 

“Well, hold on.” Cutting Nami off, “It’s true his opinion doesn’t have any basis,” clasping a hand on Luffy’s shoulder, “but he’s right about us not having to be scared of him. We should consider ourselves lucky that we got to see him now. Because we can figure out our counter-measures against Mr 2.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 _“I heard about what happened.”_ Cortez’s voice came through the Den Den mushi they placed in the meeting room. _“Is it true that Ace is the main suspect?”_

“We can’t be certain yoi.”

 

 _“Marco, don’t lie to me.”_ Cortez hissed back.

 

Staring at the Den Den Mushi, “Yes, he is the main suspect in everyone’s mind.” Marco finally confessed, believing that he shouldn’t keep any information away from ex-Spade pirates.

 

_“Have you checked Ace’s vivre card?”_

 

Blinking at the question, Marco turned his head to look at his other brothers who _wouldn’t_ allow him to check the whole ship. When they shake their head, Marco understood their answer.

 

“We-“

 

“Ace took it with him when he left the ship.” Whitebeard cut Marco off. “Cortez, Ace might look like the main suspect right now, but we wouldn’t know anything until Thatch wakes up. There is something **more** to this whole situation than what we are seeing.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“ ** _FOOD!!!_** ” Luffy screamed out at the top of his lungs before rushing into the heart of Nanohana, leaving both his crew and dust behind.

 

“Will be able to stay out of trouble?” Usopp asked, looking at the cloud of dust left behind by their Captain.

 

Shrugging, “Well, he’s going to a restaurant to get some food how much trouble is he going to get into?” Nami answered, getting ready for the trip into town to get the much needed provisions and water for the next few days.

 

Blinking at Nami, Usopp didn’t know why she is suddenly so confident that their captain will be able to stay out of trouble. After all Luffy attracts trouble like a lighthouse beckon ships, the sky’s going to fall if Luffy didn’t attract or get into trouble for a single day.

 

“Come on let’s go. We need to get our provisions and water.” Nami ordered leaving Usopp and the rest to rush after her.

 

Of course Usopp’s worse fear comes true when they see Luffy running in their direction with Marines chasing after him, mentally preparing himself to ran off in a moment’s notice, everyone tighten their grip on the provisions and barrels of fresh water they bought.

 

“We might be able to escape if we pretend to not know Luffy. After all we had changed our usual clothes to what is considered normal, no one should be able to recognize us.” Nami whispered out, low enough for them to hear.

 

“True, but we should also start walking in another direction. Don’t need Luffy to expose us right?” Sanji pointed out.

 

Before anyone could walk off, Luffy screamed out, “Guys!” Foiling their plans of being able to walk away from this scene without the Marines knowing who they are.

 

Cursing out, all of Straw Hat crew quickly dash off, with Usopp making sure to keep an eye out for Zoro’s horrible direction sense.

 

“You stupid rubber-brain! Why did you call out to us and bring danger to Nami-swan and Vivi-chwan?!” Sanji hissed out, kicking out at his idiotic captain.

 

“Shishishishishi!”

 

“This way!” Vivi pointed out, dodging into the alleyway.

 

Everyone followed after her, after all no one else know the streets better than the Princess of Alabasta.

 

“Vivi, are we reaching the ship soon?” Nami panted.

 

“Just a few more blocks down! Should we do a detour to lose the Marines?”

 

“No use doing that when the Marines are already around the town searching for us, it’s best to just get back to the ship to make sure they haven’t taken it.” Nami answered.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Making a detour around the whole town, Ace couldn’t help the grin from appearing. It’s been a while since he had seen their baby brother (the bounty poster doesn’t count) and he seems to be doing really well from the short glimpse he managed to get while they are running away from the Marines.

 

Making a right turn to get back to where he had hide Striker, he hoped that the shop he light up on fire had bought the Straw Hat crew enough time to escape.

 

When Ace is still debating whether he should light up a few more houses to delay the Marines, he spotted a better opinion. The Marine ship is docked near to Striker’s hiding spot and not a single Marine could be seen on the deck.

 

The Marines are arrogant like that, they are the ones who up-hold the ‘Justice’ around the world so no one would be dumb enough to do anything. He should break the ship, giving the Marines a good lecture for not appointing a watch and giving all their baby brother’s crew time to escape and enough for him to catch up with them.

 

A manic grin slowly slip onto his face, looks like he came up with a good plan.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“I see the ship!” Usopp shouted out, pointing to their ship.

 

“Sanji, Chopper grab all of our supplies and put them in a safe location before going to your spot. Zoro once you get up there, go and pull the anchor. The rest of you just prepare to set sail and get ready for an attack.” Nami ordered.

 

As soon as everyone got onto the deck, they quickly scattered to their position. Zoro rushing off to the back to pull out their anchor, Chopper and Sanji quickly went to the kitchen to dump all of the supplies, Usopp climbing up to the main mash as a look out, Luffy using his Devil Fruit to undo their sail, Vivi following Nami to the upper deck to give instructions on where they have to go and Nami running into the ladies’ room to grab the map to plan their route.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

“What happened? I ordered all of you to be prepared to chase after Straw Hat!” Smoker demanded when he reached the ship he is in-charge of to see that no one is in their position.

 

“Captain, someone or something attacked our ship, creating a hole large enough that it’s impossible to set sail unless we want to sink.” Someone answered him.

 

Clenching his jaws, Smoker turned his head to look in the direction where he passed Straw Hat’s ship to see the size of it getting smaller and smaller as they got further away from his reach. Seems like those pirates have extremely good luck to be able to get away from him, but they wouldn’t escape his reach for long. They are here in Alabasta for a reason and he is going to find out why.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

“I don’t spot any of the Marines!” Usopp shouted out after checking in all directions.

 

“That’s impossible! They were right behind us!” Nami answered back.

 

“I’m serious, I don’t see anything. Not a single ship!”

 

Leaning back against the railings, “Maybe they just give up?” Luffy pointed out while digging his nose.

 

“Why the hell would they just suddenly give up?!” Chopper questioned

 

Shrugging, “How the hell would I know?”

 

Throwing whatever she is holding in her hand, Nami could **_NEVER_** stop resorting to violence when Luffy say anything stupid.

 

“I’m afraid that it’s my fault that the Marines are not chasing after all of you.” Hearing an unfamiliar voice made everyone tensed up, snapping their head in the direction where the voice came from to see someone wearing a black cloak and carrying a travel bag.

 

“Sorry, but I’m not a danger to you guys.” The stranger announced, holding both of his hands up in a sign of surrender.

 

“Then why are you here on our ship?” Sanji questioned, suspicious in his tone.

 

“I’m looking for Luffy.” This statement turned their attention to their Captain.

 

Tilting his head to the side, “I don’t believe I know you?”

 

“Hey, hey, it’s true that it’s been a while that I’ve last seen you but have you really forgotten about me?” Pulling the hood of his cloak down, finally revealing his face.

 

“ ** _ACE?!_** ”

 

Slowly creeping to Zoro, “Do you know who this guy is?” Nami questioned while keeping her eyes on the stranger named Ace interacting with Luffy.

 

“No. This is the first time for me to meet him.” Zoro answered, keeping his hand on his sword.

 

“Could this be one of Mr 2’s tactic to lower our guards?” Vivi whispered out.

 

“We’ll keep an eye out because we know that rubber-brain wouldn’t.”

 

“Ace! I want you to meet my crew.” Pointing to his nakama, “Guys, Ace is my oldest brother!” Luffy introduced.

 

 “Oh, you guys are Luffy’s nakama. Hello!” Bowing to everyone, Ace kept one of his hand on his hat. “I trust my little brother has been in your care.”

 

“Yes, he has.” Everyone automatically answered, bowing to him in return.

 

“He has no manners, so he will probably end up burning your hands a few times.”

 

“Yes, he has.”

 

Putting as much sincerity into his voice, “I’ll entrust him to you.” Bowing one again, he meant what he said. With all of the things circling around him, he will not be able to rush to Luffy’s aid like what he would like to do.

 

“For now, you probably got some small talks to share. Wanna come inside?” Sanji asked, fingering the cigarette he hold. “I’ll make some tea.”

 

“I’ll take your offer.” Ace smiled, lighting up the cigarette. “Luffy, let’s go, I have something important to tell you.”

 

Looking at the two brothers who are heading to the back of the ship for some privacy, “T-This is totally unexpected.” Usopp whispered out.

 

“Sure is.” Zoro answered, stilling trying to grasp what he had just seen.

 

“I thought the guy will be exactly like Luffy, an idiotic jerk who will never listen to a single word we say.” Usopp said.

 

“It’s a lie! Someone this polite _can’t_ be Luffy’s brother.” Nami added in.

 

“He’s such a better person than his brother!” Zoro pointed out, slightly regretting why he hadn’t met Ace earlier and join Ace’s crew.

 

“Brotherhood is such a wonderful thing!” Chopper said.

 

“It doesn’t make sense. The sea is a mysterious place.” Sanji joined in.

 

“Now, now, everyone…” Vivi weakly said out, knowing full well that the two brothers could still hear what they have said.

 

“Now, I’ll be in the kitchen making tea and snacks before that rubber brain annoys me for it.” Sanji whispered out, walking away with him still trying to process his captain’s brother have manners.

 

“So, what do you wanna tell me?” Luffy asked as soon as the both of them had comfortably settle down onto the ground.

 

“Do you know that I have joined another crew?” Ace started, wondering if their baby brother actually follow his news.

 

“Ya, Makino informed me but I don’t know the name of the crew you join. I have no interest in that.”

 

Shooting a smirk, “Well, I’ve joined one of the Yonko’s crew and before you say anything, I enjoyed it there.”

 

Tilting his head to the side, “Okay? Why are you telling me this?” Luffy asked, getting confused with this whole conversation.

 

“Well… I don’t really know where to start.” Ace confessed, sheepish grin on his face.

 

“Start from the beginning, I’ll ask questions if I don’t get it.” The grin from Luffy chased away a small amount of anxiety he is feeling.

 

“Before you start, here’s some tea and snacks. Do you want me to warn the rest to leave the two of you alone?” Sanji asked, setting down both the tea and snacks he created.

 

“Yes please. Thank you.” Ace answered before Luffy could. Sanji only nodded his head before leaving the two brothers to catch up.

 

Once he couldn’t see Sanji anymore, “I have betrayed my Captain’s crew by killing one of his crew member, I am now on the run.” Ace blurted out.

 

“Why?”

 

Making eye contact with their baby brother, “They will be betrayed and suffer if I didn’t do anything.” When Luffy nodded his head, showing that he understood what his older brother is saying, “I am worried that my family will come searching for you and if they did find you and you blurt out the fact that you’ve seen me, they will give you trouble.” Ace continued. That’s one of the reason why he went searching for Luffy.

 

“Shishishi, Ace you worrywart! They wouldn’t know me!”

 

Shaking his head, “They know you.” Giving Luffy a sheepish smile, “I had been bragging about you to everyone who will listen when your bounty poster first came out.”

 

Shrugging the problem off, Luffy started stuffing the snacks into his mouth, “Are you going to go back and tell them the truth?” Luff asked.

 

Shaking his head, “No, it’s best to just keep the truth away from them. They won’t need to worry about things that won’t happen and I made sure nothing bad will happen to them before I leave.”

 

Blinking, “Why aren’t you going back? It isn’t good to be keeping secrets away from your own nakama.” Luffy’s tone suddenly turned serious, telling Ace that this will turn into a verbal fight soon.

 

“Luffy, I won’t go back. No matter what you say won’t change my mind.”

 

“And you’re still not answering.” When Ace didn’t answer, Luffy’s eyes narrowed, “Are you still thinking you don’t deserve to be born?!”

 

“No! Trust me Luffy, it isn’t about that.”

 

“Then why!”

 

“It’s because I’ll just bring danger to them!” Ace shouted out, loud enough to stop Luffy from his ranting, “You _know_ how dangerous it is for me to become a pirate because of _that man_! It will be a death sentence if the Marines found out about this, not that I would mind but if they found out about my mother it will be worse for me!”

 

The shouting have attracted everyone’s attention, causing them to gather and check on their Captain, ready to break them up if the both of them are going to fight.

 

“I still don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to go back.” Luffy started, his voice deadly serious, “If you view them as your **nakama** and they view you as theirs, no one will care how dangerous it is. Because nakama are for **_life_**. We do **not abandon** each other no matter what.”

 

“What you said is true but you still don’t understand. I **_don’t want_** to see my **_nakama;_** my **_family_** , **_risk their life_** for **_me_**.”

 

None of the Straw Hat crew dare to break the silence. This isn’t their place to do it. All they could do is to get ready to prevent their Captain from fighting on the ship.

 

When Luffy didn’t give a reply, “Let’s not talk about this right now.” Ace sighed out, combing his fingers through his hair, “What are you guys going to do now?”

 

“We’re heading to Erumalu, to stop the rebels first and later over throw Crocodile.” Vivi answered for everyone, feeling she could trust this information to Luffy’s brother.

 

Humming for a while, “Sounds interesting, I’ll join you guys, plus I seems to be the only one who will not be affected by the heat and could handle any of the small fights we might meet on our way.”

 

“You won’t be affected by the heat? What do you mean?” Nami asked.

 

Instead of giving a verbal reply, Ace just light up the hand that he held out, showing them the devil fruit which he had eaten, “I’ve eaten the Mera Mera No Mi and am a fire man.”

 

Eyes widening in shock, “You’re Fire-Fist Ace, the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard crew.” Zoro stated.

 

Gasping out in surprise, “Luffy! Why didn’t you tell us **_this_**?!”

 

“Huh? That’s not important isn’t it?”

 

“ **IT IS IMPORTANT!** ” Everyone screamed back at him.

 

“You’re a Division Commander… That means you’re strong right?” Nami asked.

 

“Ace is strong. I’ve never been able to win any fight against him, even before he ate his devil fruit.” Luffy answered for Ace.

 

“Thank you for helping us. No, for the citizens of Alabasta.” Vivi thanked, bowing to Ace.

 

Waving it off, “Don’t worry about it, I’m just being selfish right now.” When no one seems to get the meaning, “I wanted to see how strong Luffy have gotten. Anyway, can you guys fill me in about the situation with Crocodile?”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Being unable to focus on his work due to the news he received from Hack, his colleagues and boss deemed him as ‘useless’ in the office and had forced him to take a few days off. As if reading his mind, the books Koala chucked at his head a few hours earlier couldn’t distract him for long. Without anything to distract him and so many questions swimming inside his head, his nerves had tightly winded up that he could only pace around his room to try and get rid of them.

 

Sadly, it’s failing.

 

When the Den Den Mushi started ringing, he quickly snatched it up before two rings were out, _“Bad news. The information I have gathered is true, Whitebeard had notify his allies and the island under his protection to keep an eye out for Fire-Fist.”_

 

“Did you find out the reason?” he hissed through clenched teeth.

 

_“No, but I heard that Commander Thatch survived his injuries.”_

 

“Hack, return back to the base and take over my position for a while. I have an idiot to find.”

 

 _“Sabo, don’t do anything stupid.”_ Hack demand, remembering all those trouble Sabo were tangled in, forcing Koala and him to clean up all the mess.

 

“Don’t worry, I won’t get into trouble. After all I am just going to gather information, even if that means I have to beat the information out of the idiot.” Sabo smirk, barely containing the excitement inside of him.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Hide behind the bed* S-sorry. For both the long wait and the Thatch/Teach incident isn't explained yet. I couldn't fit the explanation into this chapter, I've been cracking my brain, rewriting this chapter three times and finally just gave up. I'm still not satisfy with this chapter, to me there is just too much scene change.
> 
> Anyway, Ace is helping the Straw Hat crew to save Alabasta! Totally not looking forward to writing the fight scenes, I'm going to be so HORRIBLE in writing it. (T-T)
> 
> Sabo is also here! I swear, the next chapter will explain everything! Not sure when I will be able to finish the whole thing. Thank you all for reading, the Kudos and the bookmarks!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Same old, same old.

 

 

 

 

Ducking around all the royal guards and the rebels who are killing one another, he will have to tell Vivi to get their ears check. Because how the **_hell_** did they not hear their country’s princess screaming at them to stop fighting?! Wrapping his arm around one of the lower ranking Baroque Works minion, Ace didn’t even blink as he break the minion’s neck. Glaring at nothing while he dropped the dead weight, he lashed out with one of his feet. Catching another member in the chest, he knew that the kick had cracked the guy’s rib, causing massive internal blooding resulting in the man’s death within a few minutes.

 

Ace have no mercy for Crocodile’s minions. For their own greed, they are willing to **_dirty_** their hands, **_watching_** a country’s destruction with the residents killing one another while they sit back and **_enjoy_** the show. How could he have mercy for any of them?

 

Reaching up to pull down the edge of the cloak covering his face down, Ace continued dodging around the battle between the royal guards and the rebels to seek out the remaining minions, it didn’t take him too long to find the next person.

 

Really, he will need to give both Vivi and the Head Guards some lessons on how the **_fuck_** to spot someone who had nothing but ill-intent to everyone after they had settled this mess. How the _hell_ can anyone miss this?! He’s not even using his hideous observation haki; barely awaken even after the intense hell-training from both Marco and Izo.

 

He is _tempted_ to use his fire just to make his job easier and finish faster however he couldn’t expose his identity in the middle of the crowd where once his family got wind of this information will rush all the way to Alabasta from the New World.

 

Ya. He will not allow himself to expose his identity. But still it’s taking too _damn_ long!

 

“Vivi!” Ace screamed out when he noticed Vivi is being dangled over the edge of the palace wall.

 

His scream gained everyone’s attention as they turned to look at the same direction. Tuning out the gasp and screams from the rebels and royal guards, his mind went into overdrive. Trying to come up with a plan to prevent Vivi’s death.

 

Becoming breathless, he couldn’t _anything_ unless he uses his flames to save Vivi. If Crocodile is here, what happened to Luffy? Wasn’t their baby brother supposed to take care of Crocodile when he was snatched from the Moving Crab that they used to travel to Alubarna?

 

Does that mean that Luffy had failed in taking down Crocodile?

 

Shit.

 

He should have told Luffy Crocodile’s devil fruit power, or at least be by Luffy’s side while he was fighting against Crocodile. His flames has a better advantage against Crocodile than Luffy’s rubber. But if he did that, what kind of dangers will he be exposing the rest to?

 

While Luffy’s crew are strong; especially Zoro and Sanji, but they are only two people who will have to protect the rest. If they were in any grave danger, they wouldn’t even make it to Alubarna. After all he was the one who came up with the idea of distracting the agents who were waiting to kill Vivi.

 

With all of them split up to fight against the other Baroque Works member, Ace didn’t know if any of their baby brother’s nakama are within reach.

 

With just a single plan in his mind, he let out one last curse before rushing towards the palace wall. Ready to destroy it to throw off Crocodile’s balance to buy some time for someone to do anything or to catch Vivi if Crocodile let her go. Worse comes to worse, he will use his flames here.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

“ _’If I do that, the Rebellion will stop. If I do this, the Rebellion will stop.’_ In the end you guys didn’t stop the war. **More people** died because of your indecent story.” Crocodile grumbled out, “I will teach you something. You cannot save the Kingdom!” he smirked, knowing full well that this will devastate the princess. Turning himself into sand, Crocodile laughed as he watched the only person standing in his way falls down to her death.

 

Closing her eyes, Vivi tried to not let Crocodile’s words affect her but it is so hard when what he said is the truth. No matter what she did, be it the letter that she managed to send to her father about Crocodile’s plans, be it her friends sacrificing their life trying to take down the other agents while she stop the rebels from starting the battle, be it being so powerless while she watch her _friends_ doing their best and wasting their life to try and stop Crocodile, none of them worked.

 

The citizens of Alabasta whom she had failed to protect, the sufferings which they had to go through due to the lack of rain, Toto-san who had tried everything he could to stop the residents of Yuba from leaving who continued to believe in the King even when he didn’t receive any help, the kingdom that she loved so much, the same kingdom that her father loved with all his heart is now in ruins.

 

If only she had been stronger. If only-

 

“-ivi!” Snapping her eyes open.

 

“Vivi!” Gasping out in surprise, she didn’t think that she will be able to hear this voice again when Crocodile stated he had died.

 

“Luffy-san.”

 

“Don’t give up yet!” Luffy screamed out as loud as he could.

 

Tears filled her eyes once again, “Luffy-san!” staring at her friend, her nakama, her captain and her country’s saviour riding on one of her father’s Head Guard.

 

“That was close.” Luffy whispered out, tightening his hold on Vivi after catching her.

 

“Luffy-san, Pell, my voice can’t reach anyone anymore.” Vivi broken down, the tears which she had been holding back burst forth.

 

Patting her back gently, “Don’t worry. We can hear you.”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

“Oyaji” Nixon called out, “Thatch is awake.”

 

“That’s good to hear son, is Thatch able to hold a conversation with me for a while?” Whitebeard asked, ignoring his other Commanders who are heading out to spread the good news around.

 

Nodding his head, “He wanted to talk to you.”

 

“I’ll head on over now. Marco, come with me.” Whitebeard commanded.

 

The walk to the infirmary is spend in silence, no one really wanted to talk, it’s only once everyone settled down onto the chair the nurses provided for them did they take a good look at Thatch.

 

“Son, it’s good to see you’re awake.” Whitebeard started, a smile appearing on his face.

 

“Oyaji, it’s good to see you too. Suri didn’t give me much information, can I ask what happen?” Thatch asked, a sheepish smile on his face.

 

“You don’t remember what happened yoi?” Marco cut in.

 

“I don’t remember much, I just remember Teach wanting to talk to me and that’s about it.” Thatch answered, scratching the back of his head.

 

“It’s not too surprising.” Nixon commented from where he is standing.

 

“What do you mean yoi?”

 

 “We found some hairline fracture at the back of Thatch’s skull which is consistent with someone knocking him out with a weapon.”

 

“Why did you tell me about it?” Whitebeard asked.

 

“Oyaji the hairline fracture isn’t too severe, in fact it will be healed with enough rest.”

 

 “Hey.” Thatch started, getting everyone’s attention again, “Tell me what’s going on? No one seems willing to.”

 

Whitebeard and Marco glanced at each other, using a few seconds to ‘talk’ to one another before coming to the conclusion.

 

“Son, Teach is dead.”

 

Gasping, “W-What?” Thatch barely got that word out. “When did it happened? How did he died? Did you guys managed to catch the person?”

 

Holding up one of his hand, “Son before I answer any of your question, did you see your attacker?”

 

Shaking his head as a reply, Nixon had asked him the same questions. But he couldn’t remember anything.

 

“We have no concrete proof yet but this is what we think happened yoi.”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

“ ** _WHAT?!”_** Chopper shrieked out.

 

“The Square’s gonna be bombed in ten minutes?!” Usopp repeated what Vivi had just briefed them.

 

“Yes, it’s going to happen at 4:30.” Vivi repeated. “When the Square is bombed, no one within the five kilometre blast will be left alive! That’s what Crocodile said.”

 

“A five kilometre diameter? That means…” Nami muttered.

 

“The Rebel and Royal armies will both be wiped out!” Chopper finished Nami’s sentence.

 

“W-What should we do?” Usopp asked.

 

“Search for the bombers.” Zoro answered, taking up the leadership when Luffy; their captain, is busy fighting against Crocodile, “We have to stop them from setting it off.”

 

“How are we going to find them?” Usopp asked.

 

“And only in ten minutes?!” Nami urged.

 

“We don’t have time to think about this!” Zoro snapped back.

 

“But listen, if the blast’s diameter is give kilometres,” Usopp protested, “then they’d have to be shooting from at least 2.5 kilometres away, right?”

 

“No, I don’t think so!” Vivi cut in, “The bombers are most likely going to be close to the Square.”

 

“Why? If they are close to the Square, they are going to die when the bomb goes off.”

 

“That’s the kind of man Crocodile is.” Nami pointed out, thinking about Arlong whom had taken care off.

 

“We better hurry.” Zoro stated.

 

Before anyone could answer, Sanji and Zoro lashed out. Sanji with his leg and the latter with his sword, knocking out the person who is sneaking up behind Vivi to take her out.

 

“There you are Princess Vivi!”

 

“Your death will give us a huge promotion!”

 

“Billions.” Chopper gasped out, turning around to look at their surroundings only to realize that they are already surrounded.

 

“We don’t have time to deal with all of you.” Sanji rumbled out, “Didn’t Ace say that he will take care of them?”

 

“They might have just run off.” Zoro answered.

 

“Two seconds.” Zoro and Sanji grunted out.

 

As their two stronger fighters take care of the Billions blocking their path, “We’ll go ahead!” Nami informed them as the others rushed off.

 

“Everyone split up and get out of this damn sand cloud!” Usopp roared out, turning to his left while the others quickly turn off into the direction they had chosen.

 

Beating the crap out of another bunch of Crocodile’s minions, Ace **_knew_** that there will be other minions hiding out in the town once he had finish taking care of those who are on the battle ground especially after all of them have seen Vivi.

 

“Hmm?” looking at the cloud of smoke that is heading in his direction, Ace couldn’t help but wonder what it is.

 

“Ace!” Usopp shouted out when he finally spotted his Captain’s polite-older-brother.

 

“Oh~ It’s great that you’re here, update me on what all of you are doing now.” Ace smiled.

 

“Get rid of them first!” Usopp roared out, pointing at the Billions chasing after him. As soon as Usopp finish that sentence, Ace have already taken care of all of them, “ ** _That’s too fast!_** ”

 

“Now, update me.”

 

Usopp didn’t waste another second, quickly telling Ace about the bomb that Crocodile had set up here, how much time they left to find it before everything blows up, and the rough direction of where the others had taken to search for the bomb.

 

“I got it, give me a few seconds to find out where the bomb is. Get ready to inform the others.” Ace commanded.

 

“Huh?!”

 

“Just do as I said!” Ace snapped back, knowing full well that they do not have time left. Looking at his gloved hand, this is the only plan he could come up with to save everyone, taking in a deep breath, Ace quickly pulled off his glove to touch the building surface.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Dropping down onto the ground, Vivi could feel the darkness curling up around her again. Restricting both her movement and breath, she thought that by taking care of Miss Father’s Day and Mr 7 they could stop the bomb from being set off.

 

But it’s a time bomb. Unless she knows how to disassemble one; which she doesn’t, the only solution is to move it far away from the Square as possible, with only a minute left, there’s nothing which they could do.

 

The taunting words Crocodile had spat at her are all crawling in her mind. How all of the things she had done, like putting her life in danger by working under Crocodile, working her way up and finally becoming a Baroque Works agent, collecting information on what Crocodile’s plan for Alabasta is, all of her friends whom had sacrifice their life to help her escape and stopping Crocodile, how she failed to prevent the Rebellion from happening, how she had failed to protect the residents of Alabasta, how she couldn’t do anything against Crocodile and how all of the Royal Guards; who are also her friends, sacrificing their life to make sure that she lives.

 

Everything is for **_nothing_**.

 

“Vivi?” Nami called out, wanting to know the situation.

 

 _She **have**_ to inform them, they have done enough for her and her beloved country, “I-It’s a time bomb.”

 

“ ** _WHAT?!_** ” they shrieked out.

 

“But we don’t have any time left!” Chopper continued shrieking.

 

Crying **_again_** ; it seems like it’s the only thing she knows, Vivi couldn’t form an answer for them. Not when she doesn’t know what she could do in this situation.

 

“Vivi-sama.” Lifting her head up, Pell is standing at the edge of the clock tower.

 

“Pell, it’s a time bomb. Crocodile planned for this to happen.” Vivi chocked out, unable to stop the tears, unable to do **_anything_**.

 

Giving the princess a nostalgic smile, “I devoted my life to serve the Nefeltari Family it feels my heart with such everlasting pride.” Without another word, Pell changed into his falcon form. Reaching forward to grab the time bomb, the bomb weights like nothing in his mind. Not when the residents of Alabasta and Vivi-sama’s life are in his hands.

 

Flapping his wings, Pell quickly rises up into the sky, increasing the distance between the town and him. Even as Vivi screamed out his name; getting the idea of what he is doing, he will not let her and the whole kingdom down.

 

_‘I am the Guardian Spirit of Alabasta. The Falcon; the one who destroys the enemies of the Royal Family!’_

**“ _PELL!”_** Vivi wailed out, reaching her hands out in hopes that she could stop Pell from sacrificing his life. She can’t **lose** another one of her friends! Not after Chaka had used his life to protect hers!

 

Quickly pushing the others down onto the ground, Zoro and Sanji draped their body over them ready to protect them from the blast of the bomb. When the blast they were expecting didn’t come, they took a quick peek at the sky. Maybe Pell had flew up far enough that they didn’t feel the blast?

 

“W-What?!” Vivi gasped out, her eyes never leaving the sky where Pell had flew up to.

 

“Just in time.”

 

Snapping their head, “Ace?!”

 

“Yo!” giving a two-finger salute to Luffy’s crew.

 

“Where were you?!” Nami roared out in anger.

 

“Huh? I was dumped there by Usopp.” Ace answered, pointing to the side of the clock tower. “Anyway since the bomb is already taken care of, where are we going to meet up with Luffy?”

 

“T-Taken care of?! What about Pell?!” Vivi screamed out, grabbing hold of Ace’s cloak and shaking the guy. It doesn’t matter this person is Luffy’s older brother, how could he just ignore Pell’s sacrifice, “Pell _sacrificed_ his life to save all of us! How **dare** you talk about it so lightly!?”

 

“P-Princess, hold on!” Ace answered, holding both of his hand up, “The falcon is still alive!”

 

“What?”

 

“You guys didn’t see the blast right?” when everyone nodded their head to answer him, “I used my devil fruit to contain the blast, so Pell is still alive. Might have some slightly burn on his legs but that’s about it.”

 

“You can do something like that?” Zoro asked.

 

“Well, this would be the first time for me to try it. Thank God that it worked.” Ace confessed. “And since this is the first time I have ever done something like this, I used up too much energy.” Ace collapsed as soon as he finished the sentence.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

**_“-ut if we ever meet again, will you still call me your nakama?”_ **

****

_“You hear that?!”_

_“Does the Princess have some sort of connection with the Straw Hat Pirates?”_

_“A Princess the nakama of pirates? Impossible!”_

Taking in a deep breath, “ANYT-“

“Don’t answer! The Marines have already seen Vivi.” Nami said, smacking Luffy’s head to the deck, “If they get any proof of Vivi’s affiliation with us, she’ll become a criminal. Let’s just make this a silent farewell.”

 

Raising up the hand where the mark; one which they use if Mr 2 decided to impersonate one of them, it’s their reply to Vivi’s answer. Even if she choose to remain in Alabasta for God-knows-how-long, she is still their nakama and they will welcome her anytime.

 

Pulling his hat down to hide the smirk on his face, Ace approved what Luffy and their crew are doing. Nakamas are nakamas. It doesn’t matter if they have to leave the crew due to some personal reasons, they couldn’t continue on the adventure due to physical injuries or if they have other things that take priority than continuing the adventure, all of those people are nakamas who have went through hell and heaven altogether. They are never forgotten and will be welcome back into the crew no matter how long it has been.

 

They held that position until they couldn’t see Vivi or even the shores anymore. Ace didn’t say anything. Taking care of steering Merry Go until everyone finished their farewell. It took another hour or maybe two before all of them have to shake off the Marines that are on their tails.

 

“The Marines aren’t chasing us anymore!” Zoro informed the rest. When the other five members are making displeased sound, “We shook them off didn’t we?”

 

When he didn’t receive any verbal replies from everyone, “Hey now. What’s with the lifeless responses?”

 

Luffy, Nami, Usopp, Sanji and Chopper turned to him, “We miss her!” they sobbed out at the same time.

 

“Quit whining about it!” Zoro roared out, “If you didn’t want to leave her behind, you should’ve just taken her by force!”

 

“Ah! You Neanderthal!” Chopper shriek back.

 

“You suck!” was Nami’s reply.

 

Sanji glared at him, “Marimo.”

 

“Santouryuu.” Was Luffy’s come back.

 

“Wait! Luffy, ‘Santouryuu’ isn’t an insult.” Usopp pointed out.

 

“Yontouryuu.” Luffy amended.

 

“No, you only added one more!” As Usopp explained how you should insult someone to Luffy, Zoro didn’t want to be bothered with his crew mates anymore.

 

Turning around to head to the back of the ship where he usually does his physical workout, he didn’t notice one of the door opening.

 

“So we finally got away from the island.”

 

“Yeah.” Zoro mindlessly answered.

 

“Well done.”

 

More shrilling occurred while all six of them demanded why an ex-Baroque Works member is on their ship, while the ‘explanation’ transpired Ace just stood there. Staring at Nico Robin; also known as the ‘Demon Child’ by the Marines. When everyone finally disperse; each taking a chance at finding out just what is Nico Robin doing on their ship and what are her plans for all of them (which all failed due to the ‘bribes’ she bought along with her for everyone).

 

“You’re been wanting to speak with me, Whitebeard’s Second Division Commander Ace?” Robin questioned, never taking her eyes away from the stretch of Blue Ocean in front of her.

 

Stepping forward, “You noticed?” Ace asked, leaning against the railing. Robin didn’t answer him, a comfortable silence stretch between the both of them.

 

Taking in a breath, “You know, when my idiotic baby brother take someone in as his nakama, he will do everything to keep them?” Glancing at the woman from the corner of his eye, “Even if it means going against the World Government and the Celestial Dragons to fight for your freedom?”

 

Giving him a smile, “If you’re worried, I will not betray him.”

 

Shaking his head, “I’m not worried about you betraying Luffy. Even if you did, it’s something that Luffy have to handle.” Ace added, “What I am trying to say is that Luffy will never betray you.”

 

“Y-You wouldn’t know whether that is true.” Robin shoot back.

 

“Trust me on it. After all he never gave up on me, someone who had tried to kill him once, someone who didn’t deserve his love and someone who is so dangerous that just being with me will mean your death in the World Government’s eyes.”

 

“No one will dare to do it, not when you’re one of Whitebeard’s crew.”

 

“They will hunt me down as soon as they figure out my heritage, not even Oyaji’s protection will help me.” Ace answered, gaining Robin’s curiosity, “My birth name is Gold. D. Ace.” He answered.

 

Gasping out, “You’re Gold Roger’s son.”

 

Nodding his head, “I would be hunted down and bring nothing but danger to everyone who knows me.”

 

“Is that why you harm one of the commander and killed another member?” Robin asked, “So that they wouldn’t be dragged into the trouble?”

 

 ** _“Oh~_** is that **_why_** you get into so much **_trouble_**?” Snapping their head around, they quickly got into their fighting stance, not realizing that someone was listening to their conversation.

 

Taking a pretty good look at the person who is standing there, “ ** _So_** ” pushing up his top hat, “ ** _Will you tell me? Why did I learn this fact from my colleague?_** ”

 

“ _HHHHIIIIEEEEEEE!”_

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

****

_Holding onto the piece of cleaning cloth recently used by Marshall. D. Teach, Ace have to find out the reason for Teach wanting to assassinate Thatch. And the only way for him to find out is use the powers he inherited from his beloved mother._

_The powers that allows him to see a short portion of the person’s future through skin contact._

_That’s the stupid mistake he made when he doing the chores assigned to him; he had accidentally made skin contact with Thatch who was there to accompany him and help him to finish his chores, if there is a way for him to resolve Teach’s anger, he will do it. After all Teach is a member of the Second Division, and as the Second Division Commander, it’s his responsibility to handle any problems that appears._

 

**Flash of lighting, separating the sky in half and being reflated off the blade of the knife that sliced through muscles.**

**‘W-What?’**

**“Fourth Division Commander, please don’t blame me for your death. I didn’t have a choice, not when you’re the one who had found the fruit which I spent so long searching for.” The smirk on the face contradicted the words. “And the stupid rule about the person who finds the fruit has to eat it forces me to make my choice.”**

**Sighing out loudly, “I stayed on Oyaji’s ship is because I would have a higher probability to run across this fruit, I would have given up if I didn’t run into it but you found it. _You_ found _IT_ and the fruit chosen me. And now with this ability, I will become the strongest man in the world. I _will_ find One Piece and become the Pirate King! But first, I will need to do something about Oyaji. We can’t have two person fulfilling the role as the Strongest Man in the World right?” Obnoxious laughter filled the air, barely covered by the thunder. **

_Smacking his hand against his mouth to stop the bile that is threatening to come up. What the_ FUCK _?!_

_WHAT THE **BLOODY FUCK** HAD HE JUST **HEARD**?!_

_Holy fuck, it’s true that he had joined the crew for only a few months (the hundred days spent trying to take Oyaji’s head doesn’t count) and he hadn’t been able to talk to most of his brothers and sisters. But the moment he was promoted to a commander, he had interacted with everyone in the Second Division so he didn’t have a good excuse._

_HOW THE FUCK DIDN’T HE REALIZE JUST HOW **SICK** MARSHALL. D. TEACH IS?!_

_He even interacted with that disgusting man, who had also been the one to convince him to take on the role as a Commander. Holy shit, he actually viewed that man as one of his brother. One who he is willing to rise his life to protect._

_Oh fucking God, if he didn’t realise how fucking sick that man is, no one else would have notice the act Marshall. D. Teach had put up for all of them. Running a shaky hand through his hair, how the_ hell _is he supposed to tell anyone about this?_

_No one will ever believe his words, not when Teach had been on this crew longer than he is. Without a doubt they might think that he is trying to break the bond which they had made with one another. And even if Marco believes him, there isn’t any proof which he could provide, he couldn’t even tell Marco about the powers he inherited from his mother._

_Not when it would increase the dangers which everyone will be facing if it was leaked out. The Marines would want to get rid of him due to his connection with Gold. D. Roger but with Oyaji’s status, there is actually a lower chance where the Marines will attack them head on. But it will be totally different if everyone knew about his connection with Portgas. D. Rouge._

_He could already imagine Moby Dick having to fend against non-stop attacks from everyone who wanted to get their hands on his powers of being able to see the future. His mother had a bounty due to those powers was  hunted down; which would have never happened if someone in the Portgas Family had kept their big mouth shut, he didn’t want that to happen._

_Seems like he didn’t have a choice but to deal with the situation alone._

_Keeping to the shadows as he creep across the wooden floor, Teach is finally making his move today. Everyone had sensed that something is wrong and are keeping an eye out for attacks, thank God it hasn’t escalated to the point where those haki users are using their observation haki, which would have made him abandon his plans._

_Following the two to the deck, Ace tensed up, getting ready to jump in at any moment. Once Teach had stabbed his best friend, he jumped in. Slamming his feet into Teach’s back, making sure that it is hard enough to break Teach’s spine so the coward wouldn’t run._

_“W-What?!” Teach screamed out, flopping on the ground._

_“Do you truly believe that no one will see through your act?” Ace asked, slowly making his way to the bastard, “Did you really think no one will ever know what you’re planning?”_

_“Commander Ace! I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Teach pleaded._

_“Stop lying Teach!” Ace hissed out, his anger fuelling him. How dare this coward continue lying through his teeth after what he had witness, “I know that you were searching for this devil fruit. And this is the only reason why you remain as a Whitebeard crew for so long am I correct?” Using his knee to pin down the fatter man, Ace’s hand tighten around the meaty throat._

_Staring into Teach’s eyes, something within Ace felt pleased at the small amount of fear that he is able to see, “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about! Why are you doing this to me Commander Ace?!”_

_Chucking under his breath, “Oh? Is this pathetic acting part of the strategic if you failed to kill Thatch and steal the devil fruit?” Ace didn’t receive a reply from the man underneath him, “Well, I wasn’t really expecting much from a coward who would stab his nakama in the back instead of having a fair fight.”_

_“How did you know? I have never told anyone about this!” Teach hissed out, finally showing his true colours._

_Smirking at the confession he received, Ace pulled out the cleaning cloth which he had stolen from their closet and stuffed it down into Teach’s mouth. Muffling the sounds and screams the bastard would produce for the punishment he had personally planned._

_“Since you asked so nicely, I shall answer your questions.” Pinning both of Teach’s wrist above his head, Ace light them up. Pushing down onto the meatier yet physically weaker man when he started thrusting around from the pain._

_“You were overly confident about your acting skills but you failed to check something.” Ace leaned down, as if he is about to share a secret with a friend, “You failed to realize that I have a special power. I actually have the power to see a short portion of a person’s future.”_

_Hearing Teach sucking in a deep breath, Ace leaned back, “That’s the horrible mistake which you have made. And now since I **know** what you’re planning, I will not allow it to happen. In fact, I shouldn’t even let you live.” _

_Using his flames to burn the greedy coward up, Ace stood there and watch. Watch as the greedy bastard who could have brought so much pain and sufferings to his family slowly burn to his death with the flames he gained from his devil fruit._

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

“-that’s what happened.” Ace explained, nursing the few bumps from the punches his other brother; who is also his best friend thrown at him.

 

“What makes you think it’s a good idea to not inform me?” Sabo spat out, “Do you know how **_worried_ ** I was when I heard those rumours from my colleague only to have him confirmed it with me a few days later?!”

 

“H-Hey! It’s not like you gave me the number to your Den Den Mushi!” Ace shouted back.

 

“Oh my God.” Sabo hissed, barely holding himself back from strangulating his older brother.

 

“You have the powers to see a person’s future?” Robin cut in.

 

Nodding his head, “It’s the powers which I have inherited from my mother; Portgas. D. Rouge, due to one of my relatives who had spilled that information my mother have a ‘Only Alive’ bounty poster.”

 

Shooting Ace a strange look, “Did you see my future?” Robin asked.

 

Shrugging his shoulders, “Maybe? Maybe no?”

 

Rubbing his forehead, “Anyway, is there a place where I could rest for tonight?”

 

“Ah, you can come with me. There won’t be any bed for you.” Ace warned.

 

“Don’t give a damn, I wasn’t able to get a good night rest because of an idiot.”

 

“H-Hey, I kind of resent that.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me this long to upload this chapter, I had a hard time piecing this chapter together and tons of distractions around me. XD 
> 
> But YES!!! Alabasta Arc is FINALLY done, was actually planning to make Ace join Luffy to Skypia. But I change my mind, I don't want to write another fight scene! T-T I suck at them.
> 
>  
> 
> Please do give me feedbacks on what you all think about this chapter! And if there is any mistakes please do tell me, I will change them (once I get over my procrastination) and so sorry for the pathetic ending. I couldn't find a good place to stop. Thank you very much~~!!!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Grammar mistakes and I didn't proof-read this chapter.

 

 

 

 

 

“Ah~ I had such a good sleep!” Luffy exclaimed as he popped his joints.

 

“What? Didn’t you hear a really girly scream yesterday night? I was so scared that I didn’t sleep that much.” Usopp asked, his sentence broken by a huge yawn.

 

“Ah! I also heard the scream!” Chopper added in.

 

“Sorry about the really girly scream. But if this guy,” jabbing his thumb at the person sitting next to him, “suddenly shows up, you’ll do the same.”

 

Stopping in their tracks, it took the rest of the Straw Hat crew to process the fact that there is an unknown person sitting in their kitchen/dining room.

 

“W-Who the hell are you?! Y-You better not do anything or I’ll k-kill you!” Usopp shakingly threaten, it would have been better if he hadn’t hid himself behind Zoro.

 

 “Oh? Sabo what are you doing here?” Luffy ask, head tilting to the side.

 

“Luffy you know him?” Zoro asked.

 

Nodding his head, “He’s my brother!”

 

“Another one appears!” Usopp and Chopper shrieked out.

 

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Luffy pouted at his brothers.

 

“Sorry, it was already pretty late I didn’t want to wake you up. Plus I wanted to talk to Ace about something.” Sabo answered easily, nodding his head to his baby brother’s crew as a greeting.

 

“You bastards, eat your breakfast before asking any questions!” Sanji snapped out, raising one of his leg to warn them to listen to what he says.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

“ ** _NO!_** ” Thatch roared out, “That is **_impossible_**!”

 

“Don’t agitate your wound! You might reopen them yoi!” Marco hissed out, pushing Thatch back onto the bed before the idiot jump out of his bed.

 

“You’re telling me to not agitate my wound when you’re **accusing** Ace as the one who attacked me and killed Teach?!” Thatch roared out.

 

“Son, calm down before I have to order Nixon to sedate you.” Whitebeard commanded, worried for his son’s health.

 

Gritting his teeth, “I would calm down once all of you stop accusing Ace betraying us.”

 

“If you will listen to us, we are not accusing Ace of betraying us yoi.” Marco hissed through clenched teeth.

 

“That’s what all of you are implying!”

 

Closing his eyes, Marco could understand what Thatch is trying to point out. With Ace still missing, no one could pin-point his exact location without using his vivre card and with no eye witness, all of his brothers and sisters seems to be pinning this incident on Ace.

 

“Son,” Whitebeard’s tone informed Thatch that he had crossed the line. “I understand your frustration however you must not let your friendship with Ace cloud your mind. We are not accusing Ace as the main suspect since we do not have any hard evidence however with Ace being the only one missing doesn’t help his case at all.”

 

“But Marco could have done something to stop others from accusing Ace!”

 

“Do you really think I haven’t done anything yoi?!” Marco bellowed back, “Whenever I tried to stop someone from implying Ace had betrayed us, they actually _accused_ that I am on Ace’s side due to our relationship! They made me sit down and listen to them while they say that I am letting my love for Ace to cloud my judgement! And the rest of the Commanders telling me that what I’ve done didn’t help Ace in the slightest manner yoi!”

 

Visibly winching, Thatch didn’t realize all of that are going on when he is still trapped in the infirmary. He have really stepped out of line this time.

 

Picking at his famous moustache, Whitebeard turned his glaze onto Marco, “I never hear anything about that.”

 

Avoiding eye contact, “I didn’t want to worry you yoi.”

 

“Looks like I will need to step in soon.” Whitebeard mused.

 

“Oyaji, I want to be there when you do it.” Thatch cut in, “I want to be there when I set all of those idiots straight.”

 

Feeling a headache coming, “I don’t really know how I should feel about the talk yoi.” Marco confessed, “Worried that you’ll try to kill everyone when they argue back? Or Happy that all of those idiots finally see the points that I have been trying to make.”

 

“Gurarara!”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Ignoring everything that is going on around him, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from bounty poster in front of him. With half of his face hidden in the shadows due to the brat’s devil fruit and the cowboy hat on his head, malicious look in his eyes (no doubt that look is for the Marines) that is the photograph used for his oldest grandson’s bounty poster. The only saving grace is the name that is printed, Ace, no family name, no ‘D’.

 

At least the brat listened to him.

 

While the brat’s facial features might be a dead giveaway about his connection with Roger but he is certain that no one else Sengoku and him will notice it. After all they are the ones who had the most interaction with Roger when that guy is still alive.

 

Taking a good look at the orange cowboy hat, it’s unbelievable that the brat still kept it and continued wearing it after all those years (he was the one who gifted that plain orange hat to Ace during his sixteen birthday) hell, it looks like the brat actually took good care of it. The accessories reminded him of the other two, the red beads represented Luffy; his youngest grandson among the three, who loves all things red while the happy-sad faces looks like the goggles that is on Sabo’s; his second youngest grandson, hat.

 

Smirking, looks like he made the right choice by claiming Sabo as one of his grandson.

 

When Garp closes his eyes, he could still remember the destructive path that Ace took when he told the boy about his father and the horrible things Roger had done to the World when he sail the ocean as a pirate. He **_knows_** Roger isn’t a bad man; he is a simple-minded and temperament man, on some occasions that man had helped the Marines protect the civilians and up-hold their ‘Justice’ when they were able to (instances where the Nobles and Celestial Dragons were getting out of hand and the Marines couldn’t do a single thing) and some of the stuffs are just lies. Lies that the Marines needed to pin it on someone and Roger became their man.

 

He had to protect Ace, to fulfil his promise to both Roger and Rouge, that’s why he had decided to use all of the lies that had been cooked up. To make sure that Ace would hate his father and not follow his father’s path of becoming a pirate, forcing the brat to accept that he should become a Marine so that he could protect the brat and if the Government and other Marines found out about Ace’s heritage, he could at least help the brat from being executed.

 

Never in his wildest dream that Ace would react so badly, questioning people about what they think about Roger and what do they think if Roger had a child, beating those people up when they said   that the child shouldn’t live. He never expected that.

 

Garp regretted that choice; of saying all of the lies that the media and Marines had cooked up about Roger, but it was too late to change anything. The brat wouldn’t believe anything he said after all of the damage he had done. By taking Sabo as his grandson and introducing Luffy to them, they managed to stop Ace from getting himself killed.

 

“Garp, do you know what is going on?” Sengoku asked once they reached his private office where no one will disturb this conversation, “Why did your grandson decided to betray the Whitebeards?”

 

Shaking his head as he settles down onto the chair that is in front of Sengoku’s table, “I have no idea. I have not spoken to my grandsons in a long time. What about the watchers following Moby Dick?”

 

“Whitebeard had informed everyone to keep a look-out for your grandson.” Sengoku answered easily.

 

“Hmm… That means they didn’t believe that Ace is the one behind the attacks.”

 

Thinking about what his friend had just said, “Garp, I want you to go and check if you can find out any details about this. Even if it meant going straight to Whitebeard and demand an answer from him.”

 

Smirking, “No problem Sen, I’ll call you if I can find any information!” Garp answered, heading out of Sengoku’s office.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Rolling his eyes at the whining he could hear from their dining room, sometimes Benn wonders why he had wanted to follow Shanks. There are better candidates out there who weren’t as childish as his captain, who wouldn’t dump all of the paperwork onto him, who wouldn’t drink till they are so hangover that they couldn’t even afford to move without losing everything left in the stomach and of course who weren’t as whining or annoying as Shanks.

 

The chaos that he sees when he steps into the dining room is nothing to him; he had seen his crewmates and captain did worse damage when they were overly drunk, heading straight to where he can hear Shanks’ whine. Lucky Roo, Yasopp sitting on each side of Shanks and Rockstar sitting across readying the newspaper that he never got to grab.

 

Ignoring the whining from Shanks, Lucky Roo and Yasopp trying to cheer their captain, Benn focused all of his attention at Rockstar. Noticing Rockstar is crushing the newspaper he is reading, “Don’t crush it, I haven’t read it yet.” He warned. Benn knew that something is wrong when Rockstar turn to look at him, “What’s wrong?”

 

He didn’t receive any reply; the newspaper was thrust into his hand. It didn’t take Benn long to know what Rockstar is worried about. “Shanks.” His voice cut through all the noises made, Shanks snapped to him. Having learnt the tone that he uses when there is an emergency or they are facing something serious, the rest of the crew quickly quiet down, wanting to know what is wrong.

 

“You’ll need to read this.” Benn stated, pushing the newspaper into Shanks’ hand without revealing anymore information.

 

It took Shanks a few seconds to read through the article, his cold anger rushed through the whole dining room, causing those lower ranking members to shiver in fear. “This is impossible.”

 

“What’s wrong?” Lucky Roo questioned.

 

“The newspaper stated that Ace had betrayed the Whitebeards. Killing one member and fatally harming Thatch.” Benn answered for Shanks, lighting up his cigarette.

 

“What!” Yasopp shrieked out, “That doesn’t sound like the brat we met!”

 

“Shanks, what do you want to do?”

 

“Change course! We’re going to pay the old man a visit.” Shanks ordered, making everyone abandon their breakfast and scrambled around to complete their Captain’s order.

 

“Do you think Ace knows?” Benn asked as soon as they are the only ones left in the room.

 

“I can’t be certain.” Shanks answered, touching the three scars across his left eye, “If Ace did know how potentially dangerous Teach is, how he got those information? Teach had been nothing but careful, the old man didn’t even notice or suspected anything. And there is no reason for Ace to harm the Fourth Division Commander.” Making eye contact with Benn, “Something’s fishy about this attack.”

 

Nodding his head, “I agree.”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

If Marco hadn’t said anything, Whitebeard wouldn’t know about the arguments all of his children have and also about how some of his children are still suspecting Ace for the attack. Looking up into the darken sky, he couldn’t help but wonder if he **_has_** gone senile for not noticing anything, about the attacks and even realizing what Ace had been planning.

 

Maybe it’s because of the peace they had for years that are messing with him?

 

He is known as the Strongest Man in the World, the Marines wouldn’t attack them without a single reason that if you minus out those fools who believe that they are strong enough to take care of him. The other Yonkos wouldn’t directly attack him without huge losses on both sides. And without Roger roaming the sea, the attacks which they experienced are nothing but child’s play.

 

Taking another deep swing of his sake, now he has doubts whether he is a good Captain or not.

 

Of course he isn’t. If he had done a better job at being a Captain, he could have stopped the attack from happening and Teach would still be alive, enjoying his break now that he had just finished one of the long missions he had assigned to him, and just being able to continue on with his adventures with all of them. And Thatch wouldn’t lose one of his kidneys, having to go through the trouble of looking after his diet and keeping an extra eye on his reminding one during any battles.

 

“Oyaji, you’re still up?” Vista asked, standing beside the throne that is his seat.

 

“Yes son, I don’t feel like sleeping yet.” He answered.

 

 

Taking a good look at him, “Oyaji, you’re blaming yourself.” It isn’t a question, “There was nothing which you or anyone could do at that point of time. And don’t say that you could have notice something because you’re not the only one, none of us could have notice anything.”

 

Chuckling at the deadpanned tone Vista had used seems like his son had been point that fact a lot. “Looks like you’ve been practicing that line.”

 

“True, I had been repeating that for days. And no matter what I said, Marco doesn’t seem to be accepting it.”

 

Humming at the information Vista graciously provided for him, looks like he will need to talk to Marco soon. Mentally going through his schedule tomorrow, he should be able to have the talk before dinner even if the talk went on for too long making them miss their dinner, he is sure that his children will save their portion for them.

 

“Oyaji, do you believe that Ace betrayed us?” vista whispered, as if he is afraid someone will overheard what he just said when only the both of them are on deck.

 

 

“No. I won’t believe that till we have evidence to tell us that.” Shooting a smirk at Vista, “Plus do you think with Ace’s personality he will betray us without a good reason?”

 

 “I thought so too, there must be something that all of us missed and Ace found out. For some reason Ace couldn’t tell us and decided to take matters into his own hands.”

 

Nodding his head to agree with Vista’s deduction, “And it leaves us with why couldn’t Ace tell us and the million beri question is what is the thing that we missed?”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Settling down at the back of the ship, “Luffy, did Ace told you what he had done?” Sabo started.

 

Nodding his head, “Ya, he had to kill someone to protect his nakamas. But he doesn’t want to go back, he didn’t even want them to know the truth and nothing I said can convince him. Sabo, can you do something about it?”

 

Narrowing his eyes at his idiotic older brother, “You haven’t told them about the power you inherited from your mother?” Sabo didn’t even a verbal reply, with how Ace is avoiding eye contact with him tells him all the answers he needs. “Why didn’t you tell them?”

 

“I didn’t want to put them in anymore danger.” Ace whispered out, hoping that this is a good enough answer for Sabo. When no one gave a positive reply, “I-It’s a good thing I didn’t tell them! If everyone knew about the powers, I won’t be able to find out about Marshall. D. Teach’s plan and stop Oyaji’s crew from destruction!”

 

Letting out another sigh, it seems like Sabo have been doing that a lot lately, “Well, I was planning to visit you to inform you about what one of our Marine agent found. Teach had been leaking information about Whitebeard to one of the Admiral.”

 

Blinking at the news, “That… Sounds like what the greedy, cowardly bastard would do. He wanted Oyaji’s title, so it isn’t surprising that Teach would let the Marines get rid of Oyaji for him.”

 

“Are you seriously not going to tell them the truth?” Sabo asked once more, “You do realize that the Whitebeards will be coming after you right? You won’t be able to sail on the ocean anymore in fact you won’t be able to go anywhere.”

 

“I know. But don’t worry I have already formed some plans.”

 

Scanning through the front page of the newspaper; this is her usual routine to find out which article she should read through first, and the ones talking about the Whitebeard crew had gotten her attention. Nami didn’t know much about the Whitebeard’s crew just that Whitebeard is the Strongest Man in the World, which he is the man closes to One Piece and her Captain’s oldest brother is one of Whitebeard’s members. And if anything happens to Whitebeard’s crew, Nami knows that Ace would like to know about it as soon as possible.

 

Confusion clouded her mind as she read through what is being said in the article, deciding to re-read the whole thing once again, she must have **_misunderstand_** it. Ya, she must have misunderstand what is being written. There’s no way where Ace had betrayed the Whitebeards right?

 

“Nami what’s wrong? You have a strange look on your face.” Chopper asked, “Are you sick again?!”

 

Blinking at their crew’s doctor, “No, where are Luffy and his brothers?”

 

“Oh, they are having a talk at the aft again.” Usopp answered; looking up from whatever thing he is tinkering.

 

Crushing the newspaper, she **_had_** to talk to Ace right now. If the article is true, he is putting all of them in danger! “Ace,” Nami shouted, making sure that it is loud enough to be heard, “I have to talk to you!”

 

It takes a few seconds before the three brothers appear and it’s not only the three brothers, her shouting have gained everyone’s attention. And that is perfect; everyone should be here to listen to what is going on.

 

“Ace could you explain what is going on?” Holding up the newspaper, showing the article she had just read.

 

Once Sabo and Ace have gotten a good look at the article she is holding, the sheepish look on their face showed that they know what is going on. “Don’t tell me this article is true!” Nami shrieked out.

 

“Well… Most of them are correct I guess?” Ace received a punch in his gut from Sabo.

 

“Give them the full explanation!”

 

“But Sabo, I don’t need to drag all of them into my own problems!” Ace whined.

 

“No, you already dragged us in by staying here!” Nami, Chopper, Usopp and Sanji snapped out.

 

Combing his hand through his hair seems like he has to come clean with all of them, “I did kill someone on the crew.” Holding up one of his hand to hold off the questions that is about to come, “That member had planned to betray us, get rid of my Captain and create mass destruction to the world. No way in hell I am going to let that happen!”

 

“Then why don’t you tell your crew the truth?” Robin questioned, she had been wondering about that since she heard the explanation last night.

 

Shrugging his shoulders, “I didn’t have any evidence to prove everything. My nakama might think that I am just lying.” Giving all of them a sheepish smile, “I have to warn you, my nakama might visit all of you. But as long as all of you deny meeting or seeing me, they won’t do anything. I promise.”

 

“But if you don’t have any evidence how did you find out the betrayal plans?” Nami pointed out.

 

Shoulders slumping down, “I have inherited a special power which I am not going to explain since it would do nothing but bring even more danger to all of you.”

 

“I don’t care about that. But you’re sure that your nakama will not do anything to us?” Zoro demanded.

 

“They won’t do anything.” Ace answered, “They will never harm innocent people even if it means you’re related to me. They will just ask a few questions but as long as you answer them and deny knowing anything about me will do, and all of you should act surprised and prepare for a battle when they appear. The acting will make the situation realistic, making my nakama think that I didn’t visit all of you.”

 

“Just make sure that Luffy isn’t the one who answer those questions. He can’t lie for his life.” Sabo added.

 

“Well, even if they did appear and didn’t buy our lies, it will be a good experience.” Zoro added only to block the kick from Sanji.

 

“What do you mean by that, you stupid Marimo! Do you want to put Nami-swan and Robin-chwan in danger?!” Sanji hissed out.

 

“That means we get to gage the strength difference you curly eyebrow! After all it’s only a matter of time before we have to fight against the Whitebeard crew to get to One Piece, if we know just how strong they are, we will have the time to train ourselves to fight against them later on!” Zoro hissed back, pushing Sanji’s leg away.

 

“I hate to announce it but all of you won’t be able to leave a single scratch against my nakama. Look at all of the injuries you gained during the battle in Alabasta, those agents you fought against are just people who live in Paradise their whole life. They are nothing compared to my nakama who usually spend most of their time in the New World.” Ace pointed out. “All of you will need to do a lot of training to even go against our weakest member. Plus if I had help Luffy out in the battle against Crocodile, he will be done in a single battle.”

 

“Then why didn’t you help us!” Nami shrieked out, thinking about all of the lives they could have saved if Ace had helped Luffy against Crocodile.

 

“Do you think Luffy would allow me to help him?” Ace deadpanned.

 

Thinking about Ace’s question, of course Luffy wouldn’t want any help. The battle against Crocodile is **his fight** , if anyone of them had helped Luffy in the battle, the rubber idiot will just pout and keep on shooting them betrayed look for stealing his fight.

 

“Are you going to join us?”

 

Shaking his head, “I won’t, don’t wanna put you guys in anymore danger and to be on the safe side, I won’t be telling anyone of you where I am going.” Ace answered.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

“Garp-san, we spotted the Moby Dick!” Coby shouted out, “It’ll take us another two more hours.”

 

“Good. Remember we are not here to arrest them, do make sure no one attacks them and I’ll be the only one going onboard.” Garp ordered. Staring at the newer recruits he is training, making sure that all of them have gotten his message and not tried to be a ‘hero’ by attacking them on.

 

There isn’t any need for any bloodshed when he is here to collect some information. Sen will not be happy if he had to place any of his subordinates in a body bag, he would like to escape from any lectures from Sen if it is possible. That guy likes to drag them on for ages and he have better things to do than to just listen to Sen’s ranting.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

“Judging from our speed, it will take us another four hours before we catch up with Moby Dick.” Benn informed.

 

“Benn, prepare a barrel of our finest sake for the old man. He should be willing to answer any of our questions after being gifted with the sake.” Shanks ordered from his position at the bow of his ship. His eyes never leave the vast ocean as if he has superhuman vision where he could see the Moby Dick.

 

“Aye.”

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, I almost didn't reach the goal that I had set for myself when I upload this story (it's to write at least 4K words per chapter and write at least 10 or more chapters.) but I made it! Barely made it but still (happy dance). XD
> 
>  
> 
> Shanks and Garp are visiting Whitebeard (did I even tag Garp and Sengoku?) Oooohhhh yyyaaaa looking forward to write that part even if I don't really know how does Garp act/interact with Whitebeard. Probably wouldn't butcher it too badly XD
> 
>  
> 
> And holy shit guys, 4 chapters and I have 816 hits, 40 kudos and 7 bookmarks? Holy God, I never really expected this kind of response when I first uploaded this story. THANK YOU EVERYONE!! THANK YOU!!! XD


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Grammar mistakes, not beta-ed! And TONS of speculations going on here!
> 
> P.S. I might have butchered Shanks and Garp's personality. Please forgive me!

 

 

 

 

“Newgate!” Monkey. D. Garp howled out, easily jumping across the distance between the two ships.

 

“Garp, I didn’t receive any prior warning to your visit.” Whitebeard boomed, keeping his eye on the Marine Vice Admiral. They aren’t exactly friends with Garp and the Marine Vice Admiral is also the reason why Roger isn’t roaming the sea anymore but Whitebeard knows that he could trust the man with his life.

 

“I didn’t have the time to inform you. It’s something urgent.” Garp waved the accusation off, the air around the marine suddenly turned serious, “I’m here to find out any information about what happened.” Everyone around the two elders tensed up at the sudden death intent Garp releases, “I heard that my idiotic grandson is behind the attack?”

 

“Y-“Before Izo could finish snarling out his sentence, Whitebeard interrupted him.

 

“We do not have the evidence to say that Ace did it.”

 

A frown appeared on Garp’s face when he heard it, “This isn’t what our informant told us.”

 

“There will always be rumours floating around. I thought you’re smarter than this to take those things seriously.” Whitebeard bangle the bait in front of him, knowing full well the Marine Vice Admiral would take it. And Whitebeard know Garp had fallen for it when his eyes narrowed to glare at him.

 

Marco unnoticeably tense up beside him, being the first and last line of defences for him if any unsuspecting attack is being aimed at him. Shifting slightly to get Marco’s attention, Whitebeard is certain that Garp will never risk the chance to attack him. Not when it threatens the ‘peace’ he made with the Marines.

 

“I never knew that you’ll scoop so low.” Garp growled out, increasing the intensity of his glare.

 

“Oyaji, I see Red-haired Shanks approaching us!” One of Whitebeard’s look-outs shouted loud enough for everyone to hear.

 

Hissing through clenched teeth, “Why the hell would that idiot appear now of all times yoi?” Turning his head to his Captain, “Oyaji, what do you want us to do?”

 

Keeping his eyes at the ship that belongs to the brat, it doesn’t take him to know what the brat has come here for, “Let him join us. I know what he is going to ask.”

 

Whitebeard could sense the displease oozing from all of his children but he didn’t let it bother him, if he doesn’t give permission to the brat God knows what the childish brat will do. His beloved crew could handle all kinds of situation; and he knows this himself, however with their bond being strained to the point of breaking, it’s just best to prevent any other situation from straining it. With time, his ears and his unbiased view, their bonds will heal.

 

Closing his eyes, if Ace is here; among them, no doubt that the healing process will take a shorter amount of time. Sadly life isn’t always fair and would never give you everything that you wanted without working for it, he might never know Ace’s reason for pulling this disappearing stance but he believe in their youngest. Believe that Ace has a reason for leaving the ship and have a good reason if Ace is the one responsible for the attacks on both Thatch and Teach.

 

“Oh~ I didn’t know that you’ll be here Garp.” Shanks called out, easily carrying the large barrel of sake that is definitely a ‘peace offering’ for him.

 

“You grandson stealer, what the hell are you doing here?!” Garp demanded, rudely pointing his finger at Shanks.

 

Tilting his head to the side, “Well” turning serious all of a sudden, “I’m here for the same reason as you are. If you don’t mind, I would like to join the both of you.”

 

Towering over the other two, “We can do this in the meeting room.” Leading the way, Whitebeard ignored the protest from all his children, waving away Marco’s demand of being present during the meeting, there isn’t any need for it. There wouldn’t be any need for any protection, because the three of them have something to protect even if it means they have to give up their own lives.

 

“So I’ve heard that Ace is being suspected for the attacks.” Shanks started, pouring the sake he brought into three different cups for all of them, “I don’t believe that the old man would believe that.”

 

Grinning at Shanks, “I will never believe it until concrete proof is placed in front of me. So what do you want to know?”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Ace, Sabo you’re both leaving at the same time?” Luffy asked with a pout on his face.

 

“Ah ya, I’m sorry that I couldn’t stay longer.” A forced grin appears on Sabo’s face, “But if I stay any longer I will be in a lot of trouble.” Sabo’s body started trembling uncontrollably, “Ya, it’s best if I leave today.”

 

“Oh, that’s right.” Turning his head to look at Sabo, “We didn’t ask this but what are you doing right now? I don’t think you’re a pirate right? Cause I didn’t see your bounty poster.” Ace asked.

 

“Oh? I didn’t tell you guys?” Shrugging it off, “Well, I can tell you what I am doing but none of you could say anything about it.” Pausing here for a moment to get everyone’s agreement, “ I’m working for the Revolutionary Army.”

 

“ ** _WHAT_**?!” Everyone shrieked, their jaws dropping all the way to the ground.

 

Blinking at all of them, “Why are you guys even this shock? I mean I don’t have a single bounty even thought I had set sail for so long.” Sabo pointed out. “Oh! But all of you couldn’t tell anyone else. I’ll be in a lot of trouble.”

 

“If you don’t want us to spill it, you shouldn’t have told us.” Usopp and Chopper deadpanned back.

 

Smiling at the group of people in front of him, “Well all of you are Luffy’s nakama and if he trust all of you and demanded you guys to be his nakama I know that all of you could be trusted.” This sentence caused all of the Straw Hat crew members to blush all the way up to their hair roots and started stuttering like nobody’s business.

 

“Hey, lower down your charms when you’re with them. They are Luffy’s nakama, not people who you could recruit for your work.” Ace nudged Sabo’s stomach, glaring slightly at his brother.

 

Apologising to the rest, Sabo didn’t even realise that he had been leaking his charms out to affect his baby brother’s nakama, “By the way since we’re splitting up, where are you heading to?”

 

“Ah, I almost forgot about it.” Ace muttered out, searching through the pockets located throughout his entire pants.

 

Leaning in closer, “Maybe you should get other kind of pants? This one has too many pockets; it’s taking too long for you to search through them.”

 

Blinking at what Sabo said, “Shut up! It’s good to have pants that have tons of pockets you can actually stuff a lot of things in and leave your hands for any sort of situations that might pop up.” Ace pouted, finally pulling out whatever he had been searching for, “Here, I want the both of you to have it.”

 

“What’s this? Paper?”

 

“Oh, isn’t this a vivre card?” Sabo asked, quickly testing it to see if he is correct with his deduction.

 

“Vivre card? What’s that? I don’t think I have heard of it before.”

 

“Vivre card is made from mixing a special mix and a part of a person’s fingernail together, created into a large piece of paper.” Sabo explained, showing the Straw Hat crew the paper that is in the middle of his palm, “And if you hold the paper like this, it’ll allow you to find the owner. Look at how the paper is heading in the direction where Ace is standing? As long as you follow the direction where the paper is moving towards to, you’ll be able to track down the owner.”

 

“Oh, that’s something convenient. Do you make them in a shop? If so where can we find the shop? It would be good to make one for Luffy or Zoro so that it’s easier to find them when they get lost.” Nami asked, ignoring Zoro’s complaints about how it’s not him who get lost but the world that moves around him.

 

“Those are only made in a specialize shop in the New World. If Zoro allows me to take a piece of his fingernail, I could make it for you and even bring it back.” Sabo smiled.

 

“But what about Luffy? You’re not going to help him make one?” The pout on Luffy’s face didn’t make things better for Sabo to explain.

 

“Don’t worry about Luffy’s vivre card this guy had already stolen a small portion of Luffy’s fingernail.” Ace answered for Sabo, a sly smile on his face.

 

Turning to Ace, “L-Let’s go?” Sabo asked with a forced grin on his face.

 

“ **YOU _PERVERT!_** ”

 

  

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“-That’s what happened on that day.”

 

Taking a few seconds to take in the information, there’s only one thing that goes through Shanks’s mind. “Are the Marines responsible for this attack?”

 

“I don’t think so.” Garp answered, “While there might be some fools who think that they might get a promotion from doing something like this or it might just be orders from some stupid idiots who I have no control over however if they really did do anything like that, Sen or me should have heard about it by now.”

 

“That would mean it’s done by one of us.” Is Whitebeard’s conclusion, Shanks and Garp couldn’t help but nod in agreement. “I don’t believe any of my children will ever plan an attack on their siblings.”

 

“With the type of members that you choose to accept and how you never use fear on your crew, there’s a high chance that one of your beloved crew will betray you.” Now it’s Garp who is dangling the bait for Whitebeard to take.

 

Slamming his remaining hand down onto the table, “Now isn’t the time to be arguing.” The tension rose up in the room, with Whitebeard and Garp glaring with one another and Shanks trying to think of something to say to break up this fight. “Do the both of you want to help Ace or not? Cause if you don’t want to help Ace, get the hell out of this room!”

 

Thankfully what Shanks said managed to cool down the other two they didn’t need to destroy this meeting room, frankly speaking he just didn’t want to be dragged into the ‘lecture’ that Marco will unleash on him if the pineapple found out about the fight. Seriously, Marco could talk as much as Benn.

 

“Garp do you have any information about Marshall. D. Teach?”

 

“Why would we have information about Marshall. D. Teach? While he had been on Newgate’s crew for a long time but he isn’t a Commander and from what my informant gathered his battle skills are pretty average.” Garp answered, shooting a confused look at Shanks.

 

Ignoring the confused look Shanks turned to Whitebeard, “What about you? Have you noticed anything wrong or strange with Teach?”

 

Shaking his head, “We haven’t notice anything strange about him and his battle ability hasn’t improve. While it’s true that all of us are considering letting Teach become the Second Division Commander however when Ace finally decided to take on my mark and become my son, due to Ace’s ability and strength we decided to make him the Division Commander.” Whitebeard answered.

 

“Why are you asking about Teach? Aren’t we talking about Ace over here?”  Garp asked jabbing his finger in Shanks’ direction.

 

“Seems like none of you noticed it.” Shanks sighed out, combing his fingers through his hair.

 

“Notice what?”

 

Giving a weary glance at the others, and Shanks can’t put all of the blame on Whitebeard. With the amount of people that is on the old man’s crew with the additional fact that he has three other ships to command over, there’s no way where Whitebeard could notice anything. Even he had a hard time trying to control his crew; well most of the work was usually handled by Benn and t he fact that Benn has some super senses (that is so FREAKING scary) that could pin-point out who he should be keeping his eyes on makes the job way easier for him.

 

“Did Marco ever say anything about Teach? Like the first time when they met?” Shanks continued asking, deciding to push off their questions for now.

 

“Not that I could remember.”

 

“Did anyone on your crew ever say anything regarding Teach?”

 

“I don’t think so.”

 

“What about the Marines? Did anyone notice anything strange about Teach?”

 

“Like I’ve said earlier, Sen and I have ordered all of those idiots to **NEVER** attack any of Newgate’s ship.” Garp answered, “So I don’t believe that anyone notice anything about Teach. Seriously why are we talking about Teach?”

 

“Bring Marco in I need to ask him some questions.”

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Finally having the chance to get away from the rest of his siblings especially throwing off both Jozu and Kingdew who have been stalking him, he could now release all of the tension and stress he have been keeping in his body. Making sure that he locked his door, he didn’t need anyone to barge in and see him in this pathetic state.

 

He is their First Division Commander, the First Mate to Whitebeard, the pillar that holds up the rest of the crew. No way in burning hell where he is going to allow his siblings to see him in this weaken state, God knows what might happen if they did.

 

But now he didn’t need to worry about a single thing.

 

Things aren’t looking good right now. Not for him but for Ace. There is only a single reason why Garp would visit them and it isn’t because he is around the area, it’s because the Marines wanted to find out some information about the attack. And since the Marines wanted information it means that they weren’t the ones who are responsible for the attack.

 

The one who they thought were responsible for the attacks weren’t the one who had done it. Marco doesn’t know if the others have already caught on it yet but it wouldn’t take long before it spread to the rest.

 

It’s true that there are still Kaido and Big Mom who could be their suspects however they recently gain information that Kaido and Big Mom are fighting against one another, and that the ‘fight’ are getting intense. No way in hell could they sent some of their crew to their ship and create any troubles. Even if they are the ones whom had done it, the rumours would have stated something about it; no way in hell would they allow their ‘achievements’ to be covered up.

 

The attack could only be done by one of them. And the only one still missing since they last did a count check (when they found the limp body of Thatch and burnt up body of Teach) is Ace.

 

Was his faith in Ace wrong? Was his judge in Ace’s character and personality wrong? Did he not want to accept the ‘truth’ because of his love for Ace? But his judge in character and personality never failed him before. Could he have made a mistake because his Phoenix devil fruit is drawn to Ace’s fire devil fruit?

 

What if they come across Ace in the near future? Will he be able to act out on the revenge? Hell, does he even have the heart to attack Ace? No doubt that the others will either want Thatch or him to deal the last blow; Thatch because he was attacked and him because he had been in-charge of the Second Division before Ace came, can he even do it?

 

Snapping his head up, could there be a deeper meaning to this attack?

 

For example Teach had been planning to betray them and Ace found out about it, decided to take things into his own hands? But why didn’t Ace tell anyone else? And why did he run away instead of coming clean with all of them? Could it be that he didn’t have any evidence? But they wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t have any, instead all of them would do everything they could to see if Teach was planning to betray them.

 

It’s not like Ace didn’t know their procedure! He had personally made sure that Ace knew about the rules and laws on the Moby Dick.

 

Plus if Ace did find out that Teach was going to betray them, why didn’t Ace come to him? It’s not like he wouldn’t listen. Or did Ace think that it isn’t worth it to come and talk to him? Thinking that he will never believe his words without any solid proof?

 

 And why would Ace run away from them, going as far as to keep his heads low? They haven’t received any word about him, not even the town under their protection or their allies have seen or heard from Ace. There’s no way the brat would be able to keep his head low unless he doesn’t want to be found.

 

And the only reason he could think of is if Ace is really the one who attacked Thatch and kill Teach.

 

Before Marco could go on letting his brain destroy him, a knock on the door took his attention away, “Marco, Oyaji had requested you to join them in the meeting room.” Jozu’s voice drifted in from the hallway.

 

“Ah. I’m coming yoi.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Oh Sabo, hold on for a while! There’s something which I need to give you before we leave.” Ace called out, waving for Sabo’s attention.

 

“Huh? If you’re forgetting, I’ve already gotten your vivre card.” Sabo said as soon as he got closer.

 

“It’s not that!” Ace screamed out, blush covering his whole face, “It’s this that I want to pass you.” Pulling out the item which he had been hiding in his bag since he left Moby Dick, holding out the devil fruit which Thatch had found during one of his mission, “Do you mind keeping this?”

 

“Is this the Devil Fruit that Teach had been after?” Sabo asked.

 

Nodding his head, “It is, I didn’t want to leave it on the Moby Dick just in case another greedy bastard wanted it for themselves. And since I already have a devil fruit, there’s no way where I want to eat another one. That’s why I wanted you to keep this and let someone you trust eat this.”

 

“Are you sure about this? Wouldn’t your friend want to have this fruit back?”

 

“I don’t think he would want it back, especially after he got attack just because of a fruit.” Ace answered, shrugging his shoulders.”Beside Luffy’s crew, you’re the only one who I truly trust. Plus with your job, I think you’ll need it more than I do.”

 

“Well, I think I could bring it back and see who wants to eat this. Or maybe I will.”  Sabo accepted, stuffing the fruit into his bag, “What's the name of this fruit? I would like to do some research about it before I plan to eat it or give it to someone else and are you sure you’ll be okay living alone on an island? Why don’t you go back to Dawn Island and live in the forest?”

 

“It's called Yami Yami no Mi if I remember it correctly. No way am I going to head back to Dawn Island, the risk of getting found by the old man would increase. I would rather die than let the old man get a hold on me!” The both of them shiver at the thought of being found out by the old man.

 

“True, I don’t want to be found by the old man too.” Sabo whispered out, wrapping both of his arms around his body, “I’m always being sent out on missions, I don’t think my boss would mind if I took a few days longer to go and visit you. I’ll also make sure to bring some stuff over when I do that.” Waving his hand Sabo headed back to the boat he had traveled in.

 

 

  

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Oyaji, you called for me yoi?” Marco asked as he headed into the meeting room.

 

Smiling at his son, “Shanks have some questions for you, son, please take a seat.” Whitebeard patted the empty seat next to him.

 

Not knowing what is going on, Marco just followed Oyaji’s instructions, after all there has to be a reason that he will be finding out later on.

 

“I’ve already asked everyone else,” Shanks started, leaning forward, “have you ever found that Teach rubbed you off the wrong way or he have some strange behaviour?”

 

Slowly blinking at the strange questions, it kind of reminded him of the thoughts and questions which had clouded his mind earlier. Tensing up slightly; that no one but Oyaji would notice it, could it be that Shanks knew something about Teach that no one else knows?

 

“Why are you asking all of those questions yoi?”

 

“Answer my questions first before I’ll tell you why.”

 

Marco’s eye twitched at the tone Shanks used; it’s as if he is talking to a kid instead of an adult, he deciding to focus on the questions first before thinking of a plan to get back at Shanks. Trying his best to remember the time when Teach join them, the images are blurry and he couldn’t remember much because Gibson was still their Second Division Commander at that time and had been the one who interacted with Teach more than anyone else.

 

“I can’t remember much yoi. Someone else had been the Second Division Commander when Teach first joined us and I was busy with everything else, if Gibson was still alive, he might be able to shed some light on this matter.” Marco confessed.

 

“But did you notice any strange behaviour?” Shanks prompted, wanting to see if the Phoenix’s strong instinct would say something.

 

“All I could think of is the request for a few weeks off every two months yoi.” Marco pointed out, “I didn’t think much about it because Teach stated that he just wanted some adventure on his own or there’s something he wanted to check.”

 

The only reaction from Shanks is the nodding of his head; a slightly conflicted look appeared on his face. It’s as if Shanks didn’t know how to break the news to all of them.

 

“So will you tell us the reason for all of those questions about Teach?” Whitebeard questioned, picking on his moustache.

 

“I’m kind of surprise that none of you actually knew how dangerous Marshall. D. Teach actually was.” Shanks breathed out, rubbing his forehead. A headache forming when he realise just how troublesome it would be to explain the situation to a group of people who never understood the danger they are in.

 

“What do you mean by that yoi?” Marco asked, “It’s true that Teach is stronger than most of our lower ranking members however he isn’t strong enough to take down a handful of the Commanders. That’s why instead of naming Teach as the Second Division Commander, we gave it to Ace.”

 

Letting out a long sigh, “A few years ago, I met Teach when my crew docked at an island to stock up on some stuff.” Shanks started, making sure to make eye contact with Whitebeard, “I remembered that he is one of your crew and went forward to ask him if the Moby Dick was docked on the other side of the island. As soon as I got closer I found out that he had been talking with Laffitte.”

 

“Laffitte?” Garp cut in, “Isn’t he working as a policeman in West Blue?”

 

Nodding his head, “He used to be till he is removed from the police force and exiled from West Blue due to his excessive violent and unnecessarily cruel to both the inmates and civilians. The official reports of Laffitte’s behaviour were all wiped out and no one was willing to talk about that guy.” This information sent chills down Whitebeard and Marco’s spine, they didn’t know that Teach had been talking to such a disgusting man, “I thought Teach was in trouble and went forward to help him till Teach had been the one to attack me.”

 

“…He attacked you?” Whitebeard muttered out.

 

“Where do you think I got these scars?” Shanks asked, pointing to the three scars across his left eye.

 

“He **managed** to injure **you** yoi?!”

 

“He did.” Nodding his head, “If Benn wasn’t with me at that time, and fired off a warning shot, I don’t believe that Teach would stop.” Shanks added.

 

“But that’s impossible yoi!” Marco shouted out, his usual lazy eyes are now wide in disbelieve, “He have never shown that kind of power during the spars that we held or even trainings!”

 

“I’m not really that surprised. If he was planning something which I believe he is due to the conversation he had with an exiled policeman, no way would he want to show case his real abilities.” Shanks shrugged.

 

“Are you accusing one of my son was planning to betray us?” Whitebeard’s question boomed through-out the meeting room, his narrowed eyes focused down on Shanks.

 

“Now that I think about it… Ya, I **_am_** accusing Teach.” Shanks admitted, keeping his tone light. Before Whitebeard or Marco could do anything, “I don’t have any proof to back me up except for the conversation he had with Laffitte, you can ask Benn about that but Teach’s belongings is still onboard right?” when they nodded, “Well, just go through his stuff and see if you can find anything. But judging how Teach have been keeping his abilities from all of you, there’s a high chance where you won’t be able to find any evidence of what he was planning.”

 

Thinking about Shanks’ suggestion, Whitebeard found no fault in it, “We’ll do it, Marco could you please search through Teach’s belongings along with a few Commanders? I want a verbal report once you’ve finished checking through.” Marco nodded his head, heading out of the meeting room to gather some of his siblings to carry out Oyaji’s orders, “I will update the both of you on any information that we might find. But Garp, I would like if you only share this information with only people you trust with your life.”

 

"I'll update you too if we manage to dig up anything." Shanks agreed, deciding that the meeting has ended. 

 

When the other two left the meeting room, Whitebeard hope that this investigation will finally shed some light on this mystery that is breaking apart his family’s bond.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WooHoo~~!! I was kind of worried about the meeting Whitebeard is going to have with both Shanks and Garp; especially the part where Shanks believes that Teach is a dangerous person.
> 
> I hope that I didn't screw up too much on Marco's mental anguish. That part was written in the middle of the night when my brain is half asleep.
> 
> Thank you for reading this story! Please leave your feedback in the comments!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: ...Do I really have to say the same thing? XD Anyway, it's still the same, grammar mistakes so on and so forth.
> 
> Special thanks to Kresnik for the idea! =D I've used it~!

 

 

 

 

“Haruta, Vista, follow me yoi.” Marco demanded, the aura he let out told everyone that he is now the First Mate and First Division Commander of the Whitebeard crew and not their brother. That was more than enough warning for both Haruta and Vista to follow without any questions, they will receive their answers once they are away from the large crowd of siblings whom had gathered outside of the meeting room.

 

Once they reached the bedroom for their Second Division, “Get all of Teach’s belongings out and place them in my room. I’ll tell you why later.” Marco instructed and the three of them quickly move.

 

It only took them two trips and Marco is thankful for that, he didn’t need Izo or the Second Division members to bomb him with questions when he didn’t have the proof, he knew that no one will accept the fact that Oyaji had been the one whom had ordered for it.

 

“Marco, what is your next set of instructions?” Vista asked, an unusual seriousness took over him.

 

“There is a high chance that Teach planned to do something to us, Oyaji ordered all of us to go through his belongings to find some evidence and report to him once we’re done.”

 

“Where did you get that information from?” Haruta couldn’t help but ask.

 

“Red-Haired Shanks.” Keeping his tone light, he didn’t want to give the wrong impression to the other two.

 

Vista raised an eyebrow at him, “And you’re just going to take his words for it?”

 

Frowning at that sentence, “I know that Red-haired Shanks is sort-of our enemy yoi. But he has proof to point that Teach wasn’t up to something good.” When the other two doesn’t seem to be convinced with what he said, Marco quickly summaries the conversation in the meeting room.

 

“Now I understand why Oyaji would want us to go through his belongings.” Vista muttered out, “Where do you want us to start?”

 

“All of us will go through everything yoi. Take out any notes, books and any paper to the side we will need to go through them.”

 

“Noted, when does Oyaji wanted the report?” Haruta asked, quickly dividing everything up equally.

 

“I guess as soon as finish combing through everything.” Marco answered, taking the pile Haruta is holding out for him.

 

“Well, let’s go through everything as soon as possible. It isn’t good to keep Oyaji waiting.” Vista smiled, settling down in a corner of Marco’s room in order to not disrupt the other two.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

It isn’t a hidden fact that Red-Haired Shanks is a childish and impulsive idiot who would make a huge fuss over a simple thing; like demanding them to turn the ship around when his preferred brand of sake is out, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t be serious when the situation needs him to be.

 

The ‘problem’ which they are facing right now would be a good example. The wide smile that usual could be found on Shanks’ face is missing, his usual deafening greeting isn’t heard by anyone in fact he didn’t greet them when he return from his meeting.

 

Without the usual noises that Shanks make, he didn’t even know that his captain is back until one of the rookie had informed him about the urgent meeting Shanks had called.

 

“Looks like the situation doesn’t look good.” Yasopp whispered out.

 

“Seems like it.” Benn whispered back while the both of them quickly settle down onto their own spot in the meeting room, they are the last two to arrive having been on watch. Mentally preparing himself for the worse, the small handful of times where Benn had seen Shanks this serious were the times where he had ordered all of them to prepare for a war.

 

And he wouldn’t be surprise if Shanks ordered them to prepare for a war, not when Ace’s; Luffy’s older brother, life is on the line right now. “What are your orders?” Benn asked after everyone is filled in.

 

“The old man should be taking care of Teach’s side, Garp will be taking care of the Marine’s side.” Shanks answered, “We should contact all of our informant and see if they have any information on Teach to share with us. We should also see if we can find Laffitte and Teach’s plan, worse comes to worse, we’ll do everything we could to find out any information.”

 

A small chill went down Benn’s spine, he knew what that means. They are going to torture the man to get whatever information they could get. It isn’t uncommon for them to use violence when their prisoner but for Shanks to suggest it is something he haven’t heard until now.

 

“Got it, I’ll take care of it.” He answered, knowing full well that the meeting is over and wouldn’t continue until they receive information from their informants.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

_The air filled with grunts of pain, battle cries, the ringing sound of weapon clashing with another and pain filled screams. The metallic smell of blood is so thick and strong that he could almost taste it on his tongue._

_Even if he is shackled up and out of reach of any danger, with every wound his friends and family gained from the battle, every single drop of blood shed, he could feel the phantom pain flaring all over his body. It’s as if he had been the one who received all of those wounds._

_Clenching his eyes close hard enough to see white blots appearing behind his eye lids, hoping that if he clench them hard enough it will wake him up from this lurid nightmare. Snapping his eyes open once again, the image in front of him didn’t disappear._

_His brilliant, wonderful, awesome and beloved family members had declared war with the Marines, scattering around the battlefield, risking their life because of his weak, worthless and pathetic ass._

_The gleam of blinding light, he knew who had been deployed to take control over the battlefield. Opening his mouth to scream out a warning; this is the least which he could do, before his vocal cord could make any noise, someone had stopped the attacks Admiral Kizaru had aimed at Oyaji._

_Marco! Marco had stopped Kizaru’s attack by using his body as a shield._

_Tears welling up in his eyes as his heart cried out for the pain his love must have felt while tanking those attacks for Oyaji. It’s something that he found out during one of their late-night talks; when Marco had been sleepy enough that his mouth doesn’t have the usual filter, while Marco could heal from any wounds or injuries with his zoan devil fruit that doesn’t mean he didn’t feel the pain from those injuries. The only reason the others didn’t know is that they would **never** allow Marco to use his body to protect them anymore._

_Never taking his eyes off the half transformed phoenix form of his lover, deep down he knew that it wouldn’t do him any good if he see the amount of damage Marco will have to take to protect their family. But he can’t tear his eyes away, he **had** to know what kind of pain he had forced his **precious** family to go through. _

_If he had listened to Oyaji’s orders. If he hadn’t been so stupidly stubborn. If he hadn’t been so egoistic about the power of his devil fruit. If he only think about his family before he set off, none of this would have happened._

_Blood flowed down the corner of his lips; his teeth have bitten through the skin of his lip, he is the cause of this war, he is the reason why his family are all out there, he is the reason why Oyaji will be losing some of his precious children._

_“ACE!”_

_“Get your slimy hands off my older brother!”_

_Openly sobbing, he didn’t care what the Marines think about him. He didn’t need his sight to know who had just scream out his name or the one who had been arguing with the Marines. What kind of useless older brother is he? Shouldn’t the older brother be the one who take care of his younger brother? So why he is the one being shackled and forced to kneel down on the execution stand while everyone else are risking their life for him?_

_He really shouldn’t have been born. If his mother had decided to protect her own life instead of his, she would have been alive and living in peace as long as the Marines didn’t find her and maybe she could have gotten another lover who will be able to protect her unlike the shitty bastard, the shitty old gramps wouldn’t have to risk his reputation and all of the work he had put into his job to hide him, Luffy and Sabo would have gotten a better childhood without him being there and risking their lives because of his shitty recklessness, the Spades crew would have found a better captain who could take better care of them, Oyaji and Marco couldn’t have known him, they wouldn’t introduce him to Jinbe who is risking both his status and his hometown by standing on Oyaji’s side, and he wouldn’t be causing so much pain for both Marco and Oyaji._

_He wanted to scream out at the top of his lungs. To tell everyone that he is a worthless human, a demon that shouldn’t be allow to live. To tell everyone that they do not need to risk everything for someone like him. To tell everyone to forget everything about him._

_Yet it felt like he had been gagged and a cloth or something was stuffed down his throat. No matter how much he tried to clear the blockage in his throat he just couldn’t make a single noise, much less yell out what he wanted to tell everyone. Like a marionette whose strings have been cut, he stayed where he is, watching the scene._

_Burning this scene into his mind forever, wanting to make sure that he will never **forget** this moment. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t make it out of here alive, he wanted to remember his failure in life._

 

Jolting awake, Ace somehow manages to turn the scream; that is at the back of his throat, into a whine.  Snapping his eyes around to take note of his surrounding, it took longer than he liked to finally shake off the jumble of mess that his mind had turned into because of the dream and finally remember where he is. This is his seventh month staying on this uninhibited island which the Spades crew managed to come across –before they went into the New World- there was something about this island that had caught his attention, making a mental note on the location, he had planned to use this island during any emergency and had never told anyone else. Which is a good thing because no one else will be able to find him unless they have a piece of his vivre card.

 

Looking at the sleep form of both of his brothers and Luffy’s crew, now he remembers. They had decided to visit him before getting their boat coated on Sabaody Archipelago and head into the New World, he had a party planned to celebrate Luffy and his crew for making it this far and all of the ‘trouble’ they get into. Staring at his trembling hands, he couldn’t help the hysterical bitter laugh from escaping his lips, he is nothing but a weakling, pathetic ass who couldn’t do anything to protect all of his treasure.

 

“Is something wrong?’ Robin questioned. She is the only one who still haven’t fall asleep yet, deciding that the book that she purchased recently is more important than sleep.

 

Nearly jumping a foot in the air, Ace quickly snap his head in her direction. Trying his best to slow down both his heart rate and panting, the both of them are loud enough to wake everyone up from their sleep; even if his subconscious told him that no one will wake up from it, “N-No. There is n-nothing wrong.”

 

Mentally frowning at the blunt lie, Robin might not know Ace as well as her nakamas due to the short exposure but she does know two things really well, and that is Ace is protective over her captain and Sabo and that the both of them are surrounded by ‘darkness’ due to the reputation they gained from the lies created by the Marines.

 

“I agree that the both of us do not know each other well enough to talk about our troubles,” Robin started, slipping a small piece of paper to mark the page, “but you have helped me and you’re Captain’s older brother. You will feel better if you talk about it.” Giving a smile, she patted the empty sit next to her.

 

“T-this isn’t something which I would like to talk about.” Ace answered, wiping the sweat on his forehead away with his still shaking hand.

 

A frown appear on her face, “Is it because I have told the Marines about the power you had inherited?” Clenching both of her hands on top of her book’s hardcover, “I would like to apologise for revealing that secret you had kept for so long.”

 

Waving off the apology, “There’s no need for you to apologise, I understand your reason. You wanted to protect them don’t you?” Giving her a smile, “I would have done the same thing to protect them.” Waving his hand in the direction where everyone is puppy-piling in their sleep.

 

“That is true but there wasn’t any need to reveal it.”

 

“Robin.” Lifting her glaze from the ground to make eye contact with Ace’s grey iris, “I know.” The understanding she found within those grey iris confirmed her suspicion, Ace had used those powers to see her future. That’s why he had given her the permission to reveal his secret.

 

“Thank you.”

 

The cracking of fire; that Ace had built to keep the others warm, and sound of the leaves rustling surround them, Ace didn’t want to break this comfortable silence, he didn’t want to be interrogated by Robin.

 

“Beside the betrayal, you have seen something else right?” Groaning mentally, Ace couldn’t believe how shitty his luck is.

 

Keeping his tone as light as possible to avoid alerting Robin that she had hit a spot, “What makes you think that?”

 

“Ace, even if you did kill a member of the Whitebeard crew and didn’t have any evidence to prove your actions, there’s no need for you to **exile** yourself and live on an uninhibited island. There **is** something which you’re **not telling** us.” The glint in Robin’s eyes told him that he couldn’t hide it any longer.

 

“A war.” He whispered out, covering his face with both of his palm, “I saw myself being captured and my heritage found out. I was going to be executed at MarineFord but **_they_** came, declared war with the Marines to stop the execution and save me.”

 

Eyes widening at the information, Robin have never experienced a war before but she could understand the horror. The flashes of fire and the heat from the buster call that caused the total destruction of Ohara, the screams of innocent civilians when the Marines turned against them, ordering the destruction of their ships flashed in front of her eyes.

 

“So that was what you were hiding from us.”

 

Swallowing down the scream, “S-Sabo! How long have you been listening to us?!”

 

“Everything.” Was Sabo’s simple answer as he sat up. “I **_knew_** that you’re still hiding something.”

 

Spluttering out noises that was supposed to be answers, Ace soon gave up trying to rebut and just slump down in defeat. “I didn’t want you to know about it.”

 

Glaring at his older brother, “I know you’re keeping this away to prevent us from worrying, but I would rather you tell me about it before I worry my ass off.” Noticing the slight flinch, “Do you know how much work and lecture you put me through? And all the ‘debts’ which I have to return because I asked my other colleagues to cover my work!” He whined trying to lighten up the mood.

 

“I-I never asked you to do that!” Ace stutter out.

 

Smirking at the reaction he got, “Anyway, what do you mean by you had revealed this idiot’s secret?”

 

Taking a quick glance at Ace’s agitated face, Robin didn’t really know if she should share this information.

 

“Even if you do not tell me now, I’ll find out sooner or later. Might as well spare me the extra work.”

 

The tension continued for a few more seconds until Ace finally gives up and gave Robin the ‘Okay’ to explain the situation. “I believe that you’ve already heard about my capture at Enies Lobby,” At Sabo’s nod, Robin continued, “I gave myself up to protect the rest of them, during the journey to Judicial Island I overheard that they were going to go after Captain-san and the rest once I am locked up. To prevent them from going after Captain-san and with permission from Ace-san, I have revealed the powers he inherited from his mother.”

 

It took a few seconds before Sabo blow up grabbing Ace’s shoulder, “What do you mean you gave her the **permission** to reveal that?!” Sabo started shaking Ace back and forth. “Are you a fucking idiot?! Do you even know what kind of trouble you’re getting into?!”

 

Shushing his pissed off brother, “Lower down your voice! Do you want to wake him up?” Ace hissed back, pointing to their baby brother who is sleeping a few feet away. “And before you continue with your lecture, I do know what kind of hell I am getting into.”

 

“But won’t the Whitebeard pirates find out about your powers and link it to your plans?” Robin questioned.

 

“They won’t find out.” Ace answered, managing to make Sabo release his hold on his shoulder, “Judging from what happened in the past, the only thing the Marines will do is to change my bounty poster from ‘alive or dead’ to ‘alive only’.”

 

“But why would they only do that?”

 

“Because it’s the orders from either the Celestial Dragons or Nobles. Those people would want to use my powers for their own gain. If I am dead, there’s no way where they could use my powers, plus there is also a high chance where the Five Elder Stars would want to use my powers as well.” Ace answered the question easily.

 

“That’s the reason for the Marines’ strange behaviour.” Sabo sighed out, combing his fingers through his hair and knocking his top hat off.

 

“So they are already on the move.” Ace whispered out.

 

Nodding his head, “They are sending out more people and checking each island. I heard it’s almost identical to the time when your mom is still alive.”

 

Shrugging his shoulders, “It’s not like anyone can find this island because there isn’t any magnetic wave, unless people stumble across this island, no one will come here.”

 

“And what are you going to do if someone did stumble across here?”

 

“Frighten them enough that they wouldn’t spill it or kill them, burn their ship and steal their treasure.” Ace admitted. He didn’t have any problems killing scums and the Marines, especially since he had been doing that since he had set sail and being with the Whitebeard pirates didn’t help that much. With them going after those foolish scums whom had attacked one of their siblings or attack the island which was under Oyaji’s control, Oyaji always made sure that all of them learnt their lessons by killing them and leaving only one survivor to spread the news.

 

“Just… Be safe and contact me if you have any troubles. I’ll be able to do something about it.” Sabo answered, accepting Ace’s solution.

 

“Oh, speaking about Enies Lobby we met Captain-san’s grandfather.”

 

“You guys met the shitty old man?!” Ace shriek out as softly as he could without waking the others.

 

“H-How the hell are you guys still alive?!” Sabo croak out.

 

Chuckling at the reaction she got, “Don’t worry, Garp-san wasn’t there to capture us. But we did learn something interesting. Luffy’s father is actually the founder of the Revolutionary Army.”

 

Jaws dropping to the ground, “D-Dragon-san is Luffy’s father?!” Sabo shrieked out the last word.

 

“You didn’t know? Even though you are working for that man?”

 

Shaking his head so fast, Ace was worried that Sabo’s head might rip off, “No one said anything. Wait, I don’t even think anyone know that Dragon-san is married.” Pausing for a while, “Dragon-san doesn’t even act like the old gramps or even Luffy!”

 

“Maybe the craziness skipped one generation?” Ace answered.

 

“But-“

 

Chucking at the argument that is happening in front of her, Robin make herself comfortable as she watch this entertainment. Soaking everything up, she do know the amount of danger her nakamas are willing to go through to keep her safe but being a pirate is still a dangerous occupation and she wouldn’t know when all of their lives will be threaten due to the person they are facing.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Crushing the papers which he held in his hands, his frustration rolled out in waves, he didn’t even care if his killer intent had leaked out from his tight control that the whole ship could probably feel it.

 

All of the hard work they had put in to read through every single damned piece of paper found in Teach’s belongings yet they have nothing.

 

**_NOTHING_**.

 

Not a **location** , not of a **plan** and not even a **name** that could give them any sort of a clue on where they could find anything to help prove Ace’s innocent. Resisting the urge to throw all of the paper onto his floor, he didn’t need to waste any of his precious time separating his own paperwork and those paper that belonged to Teach.

 

As his mind worked full speed, thinking if there is anything else which he could check or do to bring at least one fucking damn prove, he didn’t notice the person whom had rush to his room due to the killer intent he had unleashed.

 

“Marco! What the fuck?!” Thatch roared out, in all of his years on the Moby Dick have Marco ever let out such intense killer intent that’s strong enough to knock out most of his weaker siblings and cripple most of the Commanders.

 

Noting down how chaotic Marco’s room is, it only increased Thatch’s worry for his older brother and best friend. With Oyaji’s health declining every single year, most of the Captain’s work had been relocated to Marco, with only the most important information that needed Captain’s order being reported to Oyaji. Marco’s stress and pressure increased with the incident, with how their crew have been divided in half –half of them believed that Ace was framed and the other half believed that Ace had planned everything- it makes everything even harder for Oyaji and Marco to handle.

 

“Marco?” Thatch called, gently touching Marco’s shoulder keeping his guard up while praying that this action wouldn’t spook Marco too much. When he didn’t receive any replies, “Marco, talk to me buddy!”

 

Being gently pushed away, “Thatch, I’m fine yoi.”

 

“Fine?! The killer intent you just let out doesn’t prove that you’re fine!” Grabbing his brother’s hand and turning him around so that he could have a better view of Marco’s expression, “Don’t you **dare** do this to me Marco!”

 

“Do what yoi?”

 

“ ** _This!_** ” Thatch roared out, “You’re closing yourself off! Come on buddy, you don’t have to carry all of the weight yourself! I’m here to help you, hell I am willing to bet all of my savings that there are others out there who are here that want to help you. So please! Tell me what is wrong!”

 

It took a few minutes before Marco finally gave in, “We were hoping that by combing through Teach’s belongings, we might be able to find some clues.”

 

“Who’s the ‘we’?” Thatch questioned, he have no idea what the hell is going on or even make any sense at what Marco had just told him. But if he could find out who are the ‘we’, he will go and demand answers from them and force Marco to rest.

 

“Haruta and Vista yoi.”

 

Nodding his head, “You go and get some rest and I’ll take care of the rest.” Pushing Marco towards the king size bed; large enough for Marco to sleep in his phoenix form, with how the blanket is made Thatch knew that his brother hadn’t been sleeping in it for a while.

 

“I can’t. I have to-“

 

“Don’t make me go to Nixon and demand for sedatives.” Is Thatch’s harsh reply. “And don’t you dare fake your sleep, I will be watching you.” He added. It didn’t take too long before Marco lost the battle against his exhaustion and finally falls into a deep sleep, sneaking out as quietly as he could, Thatch have to find the other two to explain everything to him. He had enough of just sitting there and waiting for something else to happen. Making his way up onto the deck, most of his sibling must have assembled there after the blast of killer intent.

 

“Son, how is he?”

 

Looking up, Thatch could see the concern in Oyaji’s eyes, “I managed to get him to rest.” Conveying everything else that he wanted to say with just a glance, he knew that Oyaji will understand what he is trying to say.

 

“Thank you son. Please tell Marco that I want to meet him when he’s awake?”

 

Nodding his head, “Got it. Haruta, Vista, can you follow me for a while?” Heading back to where all of the Commanders’ room are located, he didn’t need to turn his head to know that Haruta and Vista had followed after him due to the two distinct footstep.

 

It’s high time for him to start helping his family, he had enough to being kept in the dark and his family walking around on egg shells. First get information from those two and the shouting match that will happen after dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me this long to upload this chapter. For some reason this chapter is just so difficult to write.This version that you guys are reading is actually the fifth version that I've written out, the first three version have been scrapped out because they suck pretty badly, and I didn't like how the fourth version turns out.
> 
> Frankly I still ain't satisfy with how this chapter turns out, especially the ending. Thank you all for both reading this chapter and waiting for me to update.
> 
> Please leave feedbacks or comments!!!
> 
> P.S A little spoiler, I might add in how Sabo survive the Celestial Dragon attack in the next chapter. =D


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Same thing (I'm getting lazy to write the warnings XD)

 

 

 

 

 

When one talk about the Whitebeard pirates, there are a few topics that those people will choose to talk about, for example their Intelligent Force lead by Haruta. People have always wondered how they could get their hands on all kind of information and way before anyone else. Another example would be their Navigation Team lead by Namur, like how they could travel from one Blue to another within the minimum amount of time and what they use to achieve that. Or they would be talking about their _strange_ and _disgusting_ (other people’s words, not his) way of viewing one another as sibling or calling their Captain Oyaji.  Another hot topic would be about their strongest fighters, like Marco’s healing abilities he gain from his devil fruit, Jozu’s diamond powers and Oyaji’s precise control over his.

 

There will be some people who will outshine the others, like how the Commanders will have more spotlights than their other siblings, the same goes for them who are Commanders.  Like how Marco, Ace, Jozu and Blamenco were known for their Devil Fruit, Namur, Izo and Kingdew known for their appearance, Vista, Rakuyo, Blenheim, Curiel, Haruta, Atoms, Speed Jiru and Fossa known for their unique weapons and fighting abilities. And he is only known as Thatch the Head Cook for the Whitebeard pirates.

 

Not that he minded being over-looked; it’s something that he had always experienced since his childhood. Why would anyone pay any attention to an orphan whose mother and unborn baby brother were murdered because the Marines think that she might be pregnant with Roger’s child and his father months later due to suicide? In order to survive as a child and being outcast by the whole town because of the lies that the Marines had spread about his mother, he had to avoid all kinds of attention; especially when he is pick pocketing his victims or stealing food from a store.

 

Besides being over-looked meant that he could surprise his enemies during a battle, after all no one expect much fighting abilities from a Head Cook. While all of his siblings know that he is the friendliest among all of them (usually being the one who welcome their newest sibling and help them get use to living on Moby Dick) and his other abilities are mostly forgotten, it didn’t bothered him at all.

 

Everyone have their own pile of workload to take care of which leaves them little to no spare time unless they clear all of their work ahead of time –an impossible task for most of them due to either procrastination or they are just too overloaded with work *coughMarcocough*- and with him having to cook all three meals for their entire family, none of his family members wanted to load him with anymore paperwork, leaving him to take care of their food supplies.

 

And that’s why he will be his family’s first line of defence, using his keen eyes; that he had trained till Oyaji had joined him, to pick out the smallest details from their newest recruit to make sure that they are loyal to them. It wouldn’t be the first time where fools were sent to infiltrate them and failed of course.

 

No way in hell would he allow anything to happen to his family while he is still here and alive. Staring down at the pile of paper that he had borrowed from Marco’s room –without telling his best friend and brother- he know that the malicious smirk on his face doesn’t suit his image. But time for him to show everyone why he; the Whitebeard’s Fourth Division Commander, should be feared.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Moaning out softly at how hungry he is –his stomach feels like it’s eating itself- Sabo is too dignify to lie his head down onto the dining table (like what Ace is doing) on Thousand Sunny, while he did offered his help but Sanji is a stubborn idiot who actually have the nerve to kick him and order him to sit his ass down before he messed up Sanji’s kitchen (from what Franky said, it just meant that Sanji had taken him in as his nakama and the rest of thing receive the same treatment).

 

“You know, I’ve been interest about this.” Nami started, putting down her cup of coffee that Sanji had prepared for her, “Sabo where did you get those burn wounds on your face?” Everyone stopped whatever they were doing when they heard the question.

 

“Ah, I got this when I was ten years old.” Sabo started with a weak smile on his face. “When all three of us got into trouble.” He shrugged.

 

Hearing a badly covered snort from Ace, he knows that he is putting it too lightly, the situation was worse than what he had said. Robin seems to have figured it out too, “Must have been something large that caused those burn wounds.”

 

Shrugging, “We get into all kinds of trouble, especially with Luffy with us.”  This caused everyone to laugh at what Sabo is implying and forget about the question which Nami had asked.

 

But Robin was **_right_** ; it wasn’t that simple.

 

_“Sabo for the next few weeks I don’t want you to head into Grey Terminal, Luffy the same thing goes for you too.”_

_Blinking at the sudden demand and serious tone that Ace used, “Why?” Sabo couldn’t help but ask._

_“Just listen to me and do it!” Ace roared back causing both Sabo and Luffy to flinch back, never really heard their brother use this kind of tone on them._

_“You don’t have to shout at Sabo!” Luffy screamed back, normally he wouldn’t be bothered to join in any verbal arguments because he could never win against his two older brothers. But something about Ace’s demands just doesn’t sit well with him, “The both of us don’t have to listen to your orders or follow them!”_

_All movement from ace stopped, his mouth gapping and closing as if he is coming up with a retort for Luffy, staring at them with panic filled eyes. This sight tells him a lot of things. Only two weeks ago Ace had told them about the powers he inherited from his mother, two weeks of Luffy demanding Ace to show those powers to him and only a few minutes ago did Ace see his future because their baby brat didn’t want to know his._

_“Ace what did you see?” Sabo demanded, grabbing onto Ace’s elbow so that he couldn’t run away._

_“You wouldn’t want to know.”_

_Sighing out, “I know that it’s something bad, your reaction told me that much.” He hissed back softly so that Luffy couldn’t hear them. When Ace didn’t answer, “Luffy can you go hunt for our dinner today? Get those boars and not the crocodile okay?”_

_The frown appearing on Luffy’s face informed them that their baby brother knew they are hiding something but he didn’t ask any questions. Just stared at them for a while, nodded his head and bounced off. No matter how many times he had seen that expression, he couldn’t help but get goosebumps, it’s like their baby brother is stripping them bare, and laying down all of the secrets they had hidden from him, sometimes sit felt like he could read their mind. Shaking his head, this isn’t the time to be thinking about Luffy._

_“Luffy’s gone, now tell me what you’ve seen.”_

_“Your real father found you while we were in the Grey Terminal, he threatens you with our lives to make you return to them and you did. Remember the guy who we stole all his treasure from? You father hired him to kill us and burn down the Grey Terminal.”_

_Choking on his breath, it felt like someone’s hands had bypassed all of his muscles and bones to squeeze his lungs, making it hard for him to take in another breath. It isn’t the horror of what will happen to his brothers –they are strong enough to survive everything- or those people who were forced to live in the Grey Terminal –most of them were ex-nobles who had either been disgraced and exile or were thrown there because they were of no value to the family- it’s the news about his **father** that horrifies him._

_“W-What do you mean by father? I told you that I’m an orphan!” Crap, his voice sounded too weak._

_His brother and best friend is going to know about his heritage! They are going to be **disgusted at him** because of his **family** that he ran away from. While he never cared about what his real family think about him (they are actually a shitty bunch of people for him to be related to) but he _ **CARED** _about what his brothers think about him! Does this mean that he will be kicked out of the tree-house and the forest?  Where is he going to stay?_

_Wait, maybe Ace wouldn’t know that he is actually a Noble. With just the vision of_

_Wait. There is a high chance that Ace wouldn’t know that he is actually a Noble, with just the vision of his that man known as his father and the clothes that he wears, there isn’t any other clues to show that he actually is a **Noble**._

_“Sabo, you don’t have to hide it from the shitty old man or me. We both know that you’re a Noble’s son.”_

_His breath sped up as soon as his brain process the sentence, faintly he recall that it’s the symptom for hyperventilation and he couldn’t do anything, not when his body isn’t listening to him. With his vision turning blurry, Sabo couldn’t help but wonder if Ace actually know what to do when faced with a person suffering from hyperventilation or is he going to faint._

_“You stupid fool. Calm down will ya? It isn’t that hard to figure it out.” Slapping his hand over his blond brother’s nose and mouth, Ace couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the pathetic reaction, “Come on, you’re doing a really bad job if you think you could keep those information away from us. Among everyone, you’re the only one who could read, write and even do math. And with your manners, the clothes and top hat you wear doesn’t help to conceal that information.”_

_Blinking at the logic from his brother, Sabo took a quick glance at the sky to see if it’s raining, or if there are any soaring pigs. Ace have never given him the feeling of using his logical side in his actions (since the raven liked using his fist more) or maybe it’s just as his brother said, it’s too fucking easy to figure out that he used to be a Noble._

_“You don’t mind?” he had to ask, receiving a confused expression from his brother, he elaborated, “That I’m a Noble.”_

_Snorting out, “If I mind it, I would have not have asked you to build the tree-house with me and let you know the safe route or even other information which I have gathered.” Pausing for a while, “I definitely wouldn’t let you meet the shitty old man.”_

_Openly blinking at his brother, that makes sense, “Have Luffy figure out yet?”_

_“Do you really think he could figure out something like that?” Ace asked back, forcing him to think about this question. Ya, Luffy wouldn’t realise unless he come clean with their baby brother. “Anyway that isn’t the main point of this conversation.” The wary tone ace use snapped him back to the important point. “Luffy and I was followed by that man till we were near our tree-house. That bastard had been searching for us for quite some time in order to get back at us for stealing **his** treasure, while the both of us were dealing with him, you set sail. Crossing path with a Celestial Dragon who was on his way to visit Goa City and for some unknown reason they opened fire at you.” Trailing off for a while as if to collect his thoughts or phrase his words, “I didn’t know whether you survive that attack or not.”_

_Finding it hard to swallow the saliva accumulated in his mouth that is a **HUGE** dose of information for him to take in. How does one even take the predicted news of his own death? Wait, it couldn’t be counted as death since Ace didn’t see whether he really did die._

_“In order to avoid what you’ve predicted from happening you demand us from going to Grey Terminal?” Sabo asked._

_“I would like to prevent everything from happening if it’s possible.” Ace admitted, “It’s best to keep this information away from Luffy, he will get himself into trouble if he learns about this.”_

_“Noted, I’ll keep my eye on Luffy and make sure that we’re always in the forest.” Thinking for a while, “Should we tell Dadan? She might be able to help.”_

_“For now, let’s not tell her anything. I don’t want her to find out about **that** , even if we did tell her about the situation, she will worry herself to death. After all, if we did prevent your father from finding you, we might not even get into any trouble.”_

_“Ya, let’s do that.”_

_Sabo kept his promise, keeping both Luffy and himself hidden within the forest. While they did went down to Foosha village; due to Luffy’s whining, they only went to see Makino in her bar and none-where else. Unlike Luffy who had grown up and spend most of his time in Foosha village, he doesn’t really trust adults, not when most of them think about is money and greed._

_And they did manage to prevent his blood-father from meeting him but they didn’t manage to be hidden from the bastard who was hired by his father. Sighing out at the situation, he couldn’t help but wonder if he should go and get some omamori for all of them, keep them protected from the troubles that just always **finds** them no matter even if it meant they went out of their way to avoid it._

_Before Luffy could open his mouth, he quickly pull out the firework which Ace had snatched from one of the stall in Goa City, the red flare flew high up into the air, warning Ace about the danger that he is in and alerting the bandits that there is something happening in the forest. It wouldn’t take Ace too long to reach their location who had informed him that he is going to hunt for their food while he brought Luffy down to visit Makino._

_The surge of protection and fear of his baby brother’s safety had made Sabo missed the words that spilled out of the unknown man’s mouth. Not that it matters, shit is going down and he knows it himself. He just has to hold on until help arrives. Considering their **luck** in anything, it doesn’t go as well as he would like, that **coward** brought back-ups with him._

_Dadan’s family and Ace’s appearance only bring slight relief for him, at least Magra had took Luffy and will keep him somewhere safe, leaving him free to handle the back-ups BlueJam; the idiot finally introduced himself so he could put a name to that bastard’s face, brought along while Dadan and Ace handle the man himself._

_However this situation doesn’t look good at all, not when Ace who is the strongest fighter among all of them needed Dadan’s help with fighting against BlueJam. A small distraction is more than enough for one of BlueJam’s underling to grab him and dump him into the fire that is consuming the forest and without a doubt is also consuming the Grey Terminal._

_It didn’t take too long before screams tears out of his throat, with the fire licking up his skin, eating through them like it’s nothing and heading to his muscle next, the pain and panic took control over his logical side, making him forgotten the basic rule of ‘stop, drop and roll’ to put out the fire._

_His screams muffled out the other two other scream that kind of sounded like his name. Before he could think too much about it, large hands slipped under each of his armpit, pulling him out of the fire. Something large yet light-weight slapped around the places where it hurts only to make the pain worse. His free-flowing bloods acted like glue, sticking the unknown thing to his already weaken skin, peeling them off like how Dadan peels a potato with a knife._

_“Shit, Sabo hold on for a while more. I need to extinguish the fire before your wounds gets worse than it is.” Magra’s familiar voice snapped him out of the excruciating pain he is experiencing._

_Slightly cracking his eye open, it is Magra who is kneeling beside him, using his jacket to put out the fire that was burning him. “L-Luffy?” he asked, voice hoarse from the screaming he had done._

_“Tied him up to a tree, I’ll have to bring you back so that Dogra could take a look at your wounds. We might need to find a doctor in Foosha to treat all the burns.”_

_“B-But-“_

_“Don’t worry about Ace and Dadan, they are the strongest among all of us, they can take care of themselves.” Magra retorted, cradling Sabo’s smaller form as if he is made out of glass. “What you need to do right now is to let someone worry about you.”_

_That was the last thing Sabo heard before the darkness took hold of him and pulled him down. When he woke up, the fight had ended with both Ace and Dadan alive, even if the latter had bandages covering most of her body and took her two weeks before she could properly walk._

A hand shaking his shoulder snapped him back to reality where a large plate of food is already in front of him, “If you don’t eat it soon Luffy will snatch it away from you.” Sanji warned, pointing to his Captain who is stealing Usopp’s food.

 

Lightly laughing at the situation, he didn’t bother to answer Sanji and just started on his breakfast, there isn’t any need  to let the others know that Luffy wouldn’t dare steal Ace’s or his breakfast due to the training he underwent during their childhood. Plus it’s entertaining to watch how other people try to stop Luffy from stealing their food.

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Thatch, have you managed to find anything?”  Vista questioned as he check on his brother, he might not be over-protective and hover over his injured siblings but they are still his family and he worry about them.

 

“Hmm, there’s nothing which catches my eyes.” He answered, lifting his eyes away from the pile of paper that he had been going through since yesterday.

 

 “At least take a break, there’s no need for you to over-work your body, Nixon and our sisters will not be happy if they learn about this.” Vista warned, walking into the room and making himself comfortable without any invitation from Thatch. Knowing his brother, his brother wouldn’t mind his presence.

 

Pouting, “Hey I might act childish but I’m a big boy now, there’s no need for you guys to worry about me.”

 

Rolling his eyes, “Then tell me when’s the last time you took a break from shifting through all those paper.”

 

“During dinner?”

 

“It would be more convincing if it doesn’t sound like a question.” Vista pointed out.

 

Throwing both of his hands up in the air in a form of surrender, “Picky~!”

 

Chuckling at the childishness, “Anyway, if we can’t find any information from those piles there’s nothing else which we could do.”

 

Leaning back against the chair that he is sitting in, “I can’t believe that even **I** couldn’t find anything.” Thatch whined, “Could it be that I am losing my touch?”

 

Chuckling, “I don’t think so.”

 

Humming for a while, “I think the only way we could get any information is to search for the person known as Laffitte.”

 

“True, it is best we bring it up to Oyaji and Marco.”

 

Nodding his head, “Especially Marco, if not he will just go through all of those useless paper over and over again till he drop from exhaustion.” Thatch agreed, “Let’s bring it up tomorrow.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

No one truly knows what the hell is going on, one moment all of them are packing up to continue on with their journey or heading back to their work and the next, a hysterical Ace is screaming his heads off, demanding that they cannot leave this island with a clueless Zoro following Ace like a newborn chick.

 

With most of them stunned with the scene they witness, Sabo and Luffy quickly rushed to their oldest brother’s side, trying their best to calm him down in order to learn just what the hell had set Ace’s off.

 

“What the hell set him off this badly?!” Sabo nearly shriek out. He had seen Ace freak out before; mostly due Luffy being a brat and running off without telling anyone, and **never** in his **entire life** had he seen Ace freaking out this bad.

 

“I don’t know! All I know is that he placed one of his hands on my shoulder and all movement stopped, no matter what I do I didn’t get any reaction from him! After waiting for a few minutes, he become like this.” Zoro answered, a little distressed himself, his other nakamas quickly gathered around him.

 

Taking a good look at the topless Zoro, it didn’t take Sabo too long to come to the conclusion himself from the rough explanation he received. “Okay, I think I know what is going on. “ Sabo exhaled, some of the tension leaking out of his body, “Ace’s powers must have suddenly activated.”

 

“What happened?”

 

“What power?”  Robin and Brook asked at the same time.

 

Looking at how Sabo is blinking at the two questions, Nami didn’t needed to be prompted, “We didn’t tell them.” She shrugged, “We didn’t have Ace’s permission so we didn’t tell Brook and Franky.”

 

“Do you trust them with your life?”

 

“I do.” Everyone answered as one.

 

Smiling at the answer he received, “Well, if you have a new nakama for at least half a year and trust them with your life, you could tell them about it. Of course if Luffy said that he doesn’t trust that person, don’t tell him. Luffy might be all childish and doing stupid things but his intuition about people are something which you need to trust.” Once everyone nodded their head, “Well Ace has the power to see the future as long as he has skin contact. And that’s what happened here, while he does have control over that power but there are still times when it just suddenly activated.”

 

“But why does it just suddenly activate itself?” Robin asked.

 

Shrugging, “We don’t really know. The other person who has this power is already dead.” Forcefully turning Ace’s head in his direction, noticing how Ace’s pupils are dilated until his iris had almost shrunk down to almost nothing. He couldn’t help but curse out, “Look at me!” he screamed into Ace’s ears, hoping that his older brother will follow his instructions. As soon as Ace’s eyes locked with Sabo, “Follow my breathing pattern as much as you can.” Once Ace shakingly nodded his head, he quickly takes in a deep breath, holding it for four seconds before letting it out.

 

It started slow and rocky but soon Ace have his breathing under enough control to be able to talk to all of them.

 

Staring straight into his brother’s eyes that still held overwhelming horror, “What did you see?”

 

“Don’t sail to Sabaody Archipelago. Kizaru, Pacifista and Sentomaru.”

 

Wincing at the short and broken up answer he receive, gently push Ace down to sit on the ground, they wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. Not when Ace is in such a condition. It seems like Luffy have the same idea as he settle down with Ace in the middle, it’s the same with Luffy’s crew; sitting down on the position where they were standing.

 

After a few minutes of Ace calming down enough to tell them everything and another few minutes for all of them to absorb the information, now they can see why Ace got so hysterical.

 

“Did you just say Kuma?”

 

“Ya, you know the bear-like guy who has paw pads and holds a bible in his hand?”

 

“B-But Kuma actually works for the Revolutionary Army!” Sabo yelled out, unable to believe that Ace had seen Kuma attacked his baby brother’s crew, “He wouldn’t attack Luffy when he **_knows_** that Luffy is Dragon-san’s son!”

 

“So that’s **why** he let us off so easily during Thriller Bark.” Sanji muttered out.

 

“You guys fought against him?! And I didn’t hear about it?!” Sabo sounded breathless.

 

“Ya, we did. But we were already battered and weary from the battle we had earlier and didn’t stand much of a chance against him during that time.” Sanji waved his hand, waving off the other details which he isn’t going to mention.

 

“For now, you guys just stay here for another few more days while I try to contact Kuma and maybe call back to the main base to see if I could get anything about Kuma’s mission.” Waving to everyone, Sabo headed to somewhere quiet where he could have some privacy to make all the calls that he needed.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Oyaji, it seems like StrawHat Luffy and his crew are heading to Sabaody Archipelago to get their ship coated.”

 

Thinking for a few minutes, he really didn’t like the idea of visiting on his son’s younger brother that Namur and Jozu have brought up. Not only will their appearance give them and the Marines a heart attack, but there is also a high chance where StrawHat haven’t heard anything about his older brother. While he is thankful for Thatch putting those children who were suspecting Ace (that was the most entertaining thing he had seen in a long time) and everyone have started their own investigation on Teach.

 

With the lack of information they could get their hands on, everyone have gotten desperate. The lack of updates from both Garp and Shanks has also gotten on his children’s nerves, but he didn’t find it surprising. Sengoku might have close both his eyes on what Garp usually do but with the pressure from both the Five Elder Stars, there’s basically nothing much he could do. And God knows what Shanks is going during all these time.

 

“Let’s head to Fishman Island and wait for them there. With Jinbe’s help we might be able to detain StrawHat long enough for a meeting.” He answered. With Jozu leaving him alone to announce his orders, Whitebeard could help but feel that he **is** too old for all of this drama.

 

He really prays with all of his heart that they will be able to get the truth before anyone have a meltdown.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, chapter 8 is difficult to write. Especially the flashback on how Sabo managed to survive the Celestial Dragon's attack, was so worried that I'm getting off track with it.
> 
> But I hope all of you enjoyed the background story I had written for Thatch. Most of the story I've read always portrayed him as a runaway Noble, and I wanted to do something different. Can't say when I will update the next chapter, might be next week? Two weeks later? Next few days? I can't really be sure but I'll try my best!
> 
> Please tell me if you guys spot any mistakes here. Thank you for reading!!! Please do give feedback and comments about this chapter~!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Hides behind bed* Sorry for the super long wait? XD
> 
> Warnings: never proof-read it, grammar mistakes. And I just realise, I don't know whether I am writing in present tense or past tense. I hate English language!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_"Captain," Benn called out, walking to where Shanks have been spending most of his time at the bow of the ship, "we have found a reliable source for where Laffitte is at right now."_

_"Where?" Shanks demanded_

_A little hesitant to answer Shanks's question, "He is at Raijin Island." Benn wouldn't know how Shanks is going to response to this news. Raijin Island is one of the first three islands that people and pirates will first come across when they first get into the New World and their ship are in the deeper parts of New World, it will take them time to head there._

_"Head there right now and keep taps on Laffitte, I want updates on his movement and if he moves on to a different island, I want to know everything."_

_"Aye, Captain." Benn quickly answered before heading to the Navigation room to update their crew on Shanks order. With where they are right now, it would take them at least two and a half months to get to Raijin Island; they would need a fucking miracle to even make it there in one and a half month._

_"Ace wait for me, Shanks whispered out, "I may have failed both of your parents; unable to save anyone of them, but no way in **fucking** hell am I going to sit here and watch you go down. I'll fucking save your life even if it meant exchanging mine."_

_The whispered promise was taken by the breeze, hidden and buried in the sway of the ocean, a promise that will not fail."_

 

That was what he had promised nearly two months ago; seven months after he crash the meeting Whitebeard have with Garp and filing them in with what he knows, it took them five months of sniffing out Laffitte's trail and two months of chasing after him.

 

They are taking way too long and there's basically nothing which he could do to speed things up.

 

Not when none of them have any information about Laffitte's fighting abilities and skills or even if he is willing to drag innocent civilians into the fight they will no doubt start -with how the man had been discharged from the police department, there's a high chance where Laffitte wouldn't care about the civilians being dragged into the fight or being held as a hostage- therefore he couldn’t take a small handful of his strongest crew member and head off to Raijin Island with their smaller yet fastest ship, if he do that, it will leave the rest of his crew nearly defend-less and prone to attacks.

 

He can't do that no matter how much it is actually killing him to image **_Roger's child_** being out there, alone, having to dodge both Marines and Whitebeard pirates to just stay alive.

 

Remembering how powerless he had been when nothing he said could change his old Captain's mind about turning himself in to the Marines; even Rayleigh couldn't do anything to change Roger's mind, how all of his nakama had to use force to make Buggy and him leave the Oro Jackson before anyone else (because the both of them had been the youngest and also the weakest at that time), remembering how devastated the both of them were (they decided to stick together while they waited for news about their Captain) when they watch the **live broadcast** of their Captain's execution. How listless he become as soon as Buggy went his own way, how everything felt numb even if he suffered some physical wound, how **dead** everything felt when his heart is still beating.

 

He couldn't find the **will** to continue on with his life. Not when he scene of his Captain's execution continued flashing at the back of his eyes, forcing him to remember how he had betrayed his Captain by not saving him.

 

That could be the reason why Buggy decided to leave after spending a week together after Roger's execution; yelling at the top of his lungs that he is going to gather a strong crew and come after him and to go to Raftel and take the position of the next Pirate King.

 

While he had taken that piece of news to his heart, he didn't have the heart to gather a crew of his own. Not when he had betrayed and sinned as a pirate and that the crew he had gathered will never be able to replace the bond between nakama he had made on his Captain's ship.

 

Benn was the one who had pulled him out of his slump; who realise that he had been a Cabin Boy on the Pirate King's ship, who have to nearly beat him to a pulp when he refuses to be acknowledge as one of the Pirate King's crew. It took him another four more years to finally see **why** Roger had decided to give himself up to the Marines instead of hiding and spend the God-knows-how-many-more years of his life in peace.

 

It was to keep his lover; Portgas. D. Rouge, as safe as possible. It had taken him that long to remember Rouge's existence that drive him to a near panic attack; and Benn had to knock him out before it turned into a full blown panic attack, before the both of them scrambling to find Rayleigh. It wasn't good news when they did find the First Mate of his old Captain besides Roger, the only other person to know Rouge's whereabouts is Rayleigh. While Rayleigh did stay beside Roger until their last journey; to send Roger off to Garp, he had rushed off to the uninhibited island where Rouge had relocated to when the Marines started distributing her bounty poster but she wasn't there anymore.

 

In fact it seems like no one has been living on the island for months and that doesn’t make any sense, without any reliable sources and without any more information on where Rouge might have gone to, Rayleigh couldn’t even form a single plan to search for her not without exposing his identity. All they could do at that point of time is to keep their eyes on her bounty to see if anyone had collected hers and the wait took years before the news coo deliver what they never wanted to happen.

 

The news of someone has collected Rouge’s bounty.

 

It didn’t took long for Rayleigh to coordinate with him as they both set out to hunt down the person known as Alastor on the newspaper; the one who had claimed Rouge’s bounty, it didn’t take them too long before they finally got the truth out.

 

The body he brought; telling the Marines that Rouge was dead when he found her, isn’t actually Rouge’s, it’s one of her cousin known as Videl who looked exactly the same as Rouge and roughly around the same age. But that wasn’t the only information they have gotten, Alastor was Videl’s husband and have supported Videl to sell information about Rouge to the Marines. While they did earn a large sum of money by giving information, the both of them soon used it up by their luxurious lifestyle and their marriage was going down the drain. And in order to spare him the ‘misery’, Alastor had murdered Videl by using an untraceable poison before ringing her dead body to claim Rouge’s bounty.

 

It’s one thing to betray blood-related family members but to kill someone who you had sworn to love with all of your heart, mind, body and soul cold-bloodedly to get money so that you could continue living your luxurious life is another thing. They didn’t even blink when they kill Alastor in cold blood, revenging for Videl’s death -it’s not as if they approve of Videl’s involvement but she is still related to Rouge and she would have wanted them to do this for her cousin-.

 

Faced with another dead end, Rayleigh went back into hiding and promised to keep him updated while Shanks returned back to roaming the seas, hoping that he might come across Rouge on one of the island they docked at.

 

The short moment of where he still have **something** to do with his life have ended, the familiar sense of ‘life’, ‘colour’ and ‘purpose’ that he experienced on Oro Jackson quickly dimmed down as soon as they appear, leaving his body; kind of like an out of body experience, taking all of the happiness he felt with it.

 

Leaving him to life his days in a daze where everything he sees with his eyes seems dull till Benn; who have to take over his role as a Captain, demanded that they are in no condition to head back to Paradise and ordered that they sail to East Blue for a vacation.

 

And that’s where he had met Luffy, who had somehow managed to get him out of his slump and make him leave his past behind him to look forward to the unknown future.  It’s true that meeting with Luffy had cost him one arm; forcing him to lose half of his fighting abilities, but that doesn’t matter that much to him.

 

Because losing one arm doesn’t mean the end of the world for him, he could always train himself with the help of his crew to fight in all kinds of battle. Exchanging one arm for the life of a precious treasure that had brightened up his days and bringing out of his depression had been worth it, even parting with the last item that reminded him of his dead Captain have been worth it.

 

As he count down to the day where Luffy turned seventeen and setting out into the vast ocean as a pirate, none of his crew could stop talking about their encounter with the bright little sunshine, making his growing crew and newer members (who haven’t met Luffy) look forward to the day where they could meet him. Speculating the terror that Luffy will unleash on the world once he set sail, the surprise came in the form of Ace.

 

The raven teenager faced through the winter storm; that had forced his whole crew to find a cave large and warm enough to shield them from the bitter cold, dragging his own crew with him. While he had heard a lot of things about Fire-Fist Ace since it’s always good to be keeping an eye on the rookies as it wouldn’t take them too long before they let their ego get into their head and come stomping to them demanding a battle.

 

No one ever expected Fire-Fist to be Luffy’s older brother.

 

Hell, none of them knew about this little fact (how could they when their ray of sunshine always looked so lonely when he thought no one else is playing attention to him?) Ace soon updated all of them about what happened to Luffy after they had left Foosha village.

 

Of course he wasn’t an idiot. He noticed how similar Ace’s look is to his old Captain, while he never really did care about what the civilians and Marines say about Roger; those are nothing but lies created by people who have never met or spoke to his old Captain, but it must have been hard on the child who had been spoon-fed with all of those lies and tales. He didn’t dare to mention it or even talk about it until he knew that he had the much needed privacy to do it and it was given when the party died down, drunkard littered the whole ground while everyone snored.

 

He asked the question which he had wanted to ask ever since Ace had introduced himself to all of them, only to find out that Rouge had somehow managed to carry baby Ace in her womb for twenty months before dying shortly after giving birth to Ace.

 

He had been unable to handle this piece of news. Rayleigh and he had held high hopes that Rouge would still be alive and would allow Rayleigh to hide her, keeping her safe for their dead Captain as an apology for sacrificing his life for all of them.

 

But they were too late; way too late.

 

He might never be able to do anything for Roger and Rouge, but he could still do something for the teenager who had been forced to grow up too fast. Keeping an eye out for Ace would be what Roger and Rouge wanted and that’s what he will do. Updating Rayleigh on Rouge’s condition, the grief he felt is nothing compared to the one that Rayleigh is going through but there is still Ace, the both of them can look after the child that shares the same blood as their old Captain.

 

Worrying his ass off about the brat when he just disappear from the news and none of his friends were able to get their hands on any information on where Ace had disappeared to and the last information he have on Ace was that he had been heading towards one of the island under Whitebeard’s control. The only place where he couldn’t go and demand any answers unless he wanted an all out war with the old man; something which he doesn’t want to do, but without anymore updates on Roger and Rouge’s child, all he could think of is to just head to the old man and get the answers that he needed.

 

His crew wasn’t too pleased with his plans but they couldn’t change his mind; not even Benn, in the end they started heading to where they had last seen Moby Dick, everyone gearing up for a possible battle.

 

Of course the brat will join the Whitebeard crew; really he worried his ass off for nothing. He would feel better if Ace had joined his crew, deep down he knew that Newgate will be able to provide Ace with what the brat had been longing for; something which he do not know and won’t be able to give. It is better that Ace stay under the protection of the Strongest Man in the World, the Marines might not found Ace’s connection with Roger, but it’s only a matter of time.

 

The old man will be able to protect Ace better than what he will is able to do. Without him expressing his thoughts, the old man knew that he will be offering his power if the Marines did declare war on them.

 

Now that his mind is actually clear to think about it, the reliable source they have must have been Shakky; Rayleigh’s wife who devours any kind of information she could get her hands on, nothing surprising actually. She knew how invested Rayleigh is to Ace’s safety and will do anything in her power to help her husband, and now it’s up to him to fish any information he could out of Laffitte while his old Captain’s First Mate try to figure out Ace’s location.

 

He just hopes that he gets there on time.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Spacing out at the photo that he held in his hand, it’s a candid photo of both Ace and he, with him in the midst of kissing Ace’s forehead. A photo that was taken by Izo where he had to actually **pay** to get his hands on it, the price wasn’t what that bothered him, it’s the **_happiness_** oozing out of the photo that crushed him.

 

Due to the devil fruit which he ate, he has fallen in love with so many people that he lost count. The relationship with half of those people didn’t work out due to so many reasons and as for the other half, he had lost them to either fatal injuries or just old age. The pain he experienced from every single love he had had repelled him from getting into anymore relationship.

 

Submerging himself into all of the work he has inherited as the First Mate, First Division Commander and taken on due to Oyaji’s old age, all of his siblings and Oyaji worried about him. Taking the time to corner him as they nag about how he shouldn’t give up on finding love just because of his past experiences, he had been pissed off with them for butting their noses into his own business until he had enough that with a single glare from him is enough to discourage them from talking and run away from him. Even when they had noticed he seems to have some feelings for someone or they found someone that matched his taste, they kept an eye on him, expecting him to do something.

 

He fulfilled his promise on no more relationship until Ace appears in their life.

 

The attraction he felt for Ace is totally different from the other attractions he had ever experienced in his entire life, the phoenix inside of him was the first to be drawn to Ace; always urging him to get close to Ace, telling him to talk to Ace and even forcing him to spend any of his free time beside Ace.

 

As much as he tried to ignore those feelings, he can’t hold back the urges for the rest of his life, maybe he should say for as long as Ace is alive. Demanding the phoenix to explain its attraction to Ace, the only answer he got was ‘ _fire’_. And it did took him a few weeks before he realise what the phoenix meant.

 

Once phoenixes reached the end of their life will be reborn from fire, with Ace having eaten the Mera Mera No Mi no wonder the phoenix is attracted to Ace.

 

Trying his best to negotiate with the phoenix, telling it that Ace is their youngest brother and have only joined them less than a few months that their age gap is too large to even think about having a relationship, there’s no way where he is going to do anything to their newest recruit.

 

Being a mystical animal, there’s no way the phoenix could understand all of the points he had given it, ignoring all of his reasons while shrieking its’ head off at him to just get close to Ace had been nothing but a pain in the butt experience (having never experienced this side of the phoenix before).

 

For the next few weeks he had to suffer through a non-stop argument with the phoenix causing him to have a massive headache that the phoenix refuses to heal and was noticeable by all of his family, mercifully all of them thought that he was just stressed with all of the paperwork and left him alone.

 

He never told anyone the truth, not when he knows some of his siblings will force him onto Ace which might end up making him lose his control and do unspeakable things to their youngest brother. Making use of his position, he had to do everything he could to make sure that he isn’t going to be left alone with Ace on any of the chores he assigned especially the night-watch duties.

 

If he believed that he had done a good job in keeping his emotions and feelings for Ace in check, he must be dreaming because Oyaji and Izo had found out about it. While he had no problems with Oyaji finding out; Oyaji wouldn’t force him to do anything he doesn’t want to, but Izo is another thing. His cross-dressing brother might meant well and wanted him to be happy but he doesn’t **_want_** and doesn’t **_need_** Izo’s concern, not when the plans made by Izo will bring nothing but trouble to him.

 

Grateful for Oyaji’s interferences with Izo, he didn’t have to suffer through anything.

 

All of his pain ended with a miracle when Ace had managed to corner him and confess to him, he is still scratching his head on **how** and **what** he had done to gain Ace’s attraction including how Ace managed to break down all of the barriers that he had set up.

 

Embarrassed with the party held –and the red bean rice that Thatch cooked for the both of them- when the both of them got together and confessed to the rest, it was the best moments of his life even if he had to keep an eye out on his family during the party and see them suffer through a hang-over while they do their chores the next morning.

 

And Ace was so fucking **_pure_**. It made him felt like he had committed a **_SIN_** just by accepting and returning Ace’s feelings. His younger lover never experienced what it meant to be in relationship and didn’t really know what to do when he ended up in one.

 

He could still remember how far Ace’s blush went when he received his first pecking-kiss on his lips from Ace, how embarrassed his rave lover was when he gave Ace a check kiss in the middle of their lunch and in front of their family, coaching how a French kiss should be done and smothering Ace’s body with both attention and kisses behind closed and locked door that made Ace unable to meet anyone’s eyes for weeks.

 

If Thatch hadn’t open his damned mouth and ask Ace about how far they progress, Ace wouldn’t have known anything about sex and if Thatch hadn’t **_given_** Ace the impromptu sex education about how sex works he wouldn’t have gotten to home base with his younger lover. Not with how inexperience Ace was with sex, he didn’t really want to be the first person to do something so passionate with Ace, not when he doesn’t know when he will be losing Ace to any kind of attacks like what happened to the siblings and lovers he had lost throughout the years as a pirate. Not when he doesn’t know if this relationship will last.

 

To prepare himself for the day when he loses Ace, he had to come up and image all kinds of scenario and always ended with a dead Ace either cradle in his own arms or having one of his siblings bring the still slightly warm body to him. It might sound ridiculous and silly to the rest but the first time he had done something like that; behind closed and locked door for just in case, the mere thoughts about Ace’s death had been enough to break him down.

 

The phoenix inside of him had intensified the grief he felt but he never really knew how intense the grief will be until he had tried it. Even the imagination of Oyaji’s death weren’t enough to create the same amount of sadness he experienced from Ace’s.

 

With how the both of them spent most of their time glued together at the waist (mostly due to Ace who just wanted to stay by his side and spend all of his free time together) and how **_happy_** Ace was oozing being surrounded by his family and the bond he created, there wasn’t a single sign where he had planned to kill one of them. And maybe that’s why he had been so devastated by what happened.

 

How his family had separated into half (one half standing by their belief that Ace had betrayed them while the other half believing that Ace is innocent) just made the situation ten times harder for him. Never had he ever seen his family having such a bad argument with one another, all the past arguments they had had been nothing but playful; no one was out for blood, it nearly tear his family in half.

 

It lasted until Thatch; not Oyaji, who had came forward to ‘talk’ with everyone, ripping a new hole into those people who dared to suspect Ace and that had shocked at least half of their family due to the fact that none of them have seen Thatch so angry. Of course there are times when Thatch gets angry; at people who dared to touch his hair, but that was considered more of a sulking than angry to him, touching his hair wasn’t a good enough reason for Thatch to get angry.

 

The information Shanks’ shared with all of them had been God sent, planting a small seed of hope into him although none of them could find a single evidence to back that up yet should have crushed his hopes but without any updates from both Garp and Shanks, there’s still a small chance where Ace had somehow managed to find Teach’s plan and helped them.

 

Personally he would rather have Ace finding out Teach’s plan than betraying them, his heart wouldn’t be able to take the betrayal. Not when he is the First Division Commander and the First Mate of the Whitebeard’s crew who is supposed to protect his family and make sure nothing bad will happen to them.

 

It would be an insult to him if Ace really did betray them; and his heart will never be able to handle it.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Kuma is at Sabaody Archipelago due to the Marines’ orders, they have gathered information that all of the members of the Worst Generations will be arriving there to get their ships coated in order to get into the New World so they wanted enough members to capture as many of you as possible. Kuma had been planning to use his devil fruit powers to send all of you somewhere safe and where you guys could train to get stronger before heading into the New World.”

 

Pouting at what Sabo said, “But we are **strong**!”

 

Unable to prevent himself from rolling his eyes at Luffy’s sulking, “You might be considered strong in the Grand Line and was able to kick most people’s asses but the New World is a totally different thing.” He commented, “There’s a reason why Grand Line is known as ‘Paradise’ by most pirates, because those weak ones usually don’t survive for long in the New World. That’s basically what happened to me.” Ace announced remembering the fight he had with Oyaji after the five-days long battle with Jinbe.

 

“Are you serious?!” Nami, Usopp and Chopper shrieked.

 

Nodding his head seriously, “People often let the fact they survived the Paradise get into their head but they forgot the tiny fact that all of the Yonko spent most of their time in the New World. It’s true that Oyaji and Shanks do frequently travel out of the New World and they aren’t the type to start a fight unless the fools attacked them first but Kaido and Big Mom are the ones who are dangerous. They wouldn’t blink an eye to kill those who are in their way or do anything to force those stronger members to join their crew.”

 

Everyone’s rapid paling faces told Ace about what they feel about the information he shared with them, he understood the feeling of being forced to serve someone else better than what their brain is able to produce, after all he had spent at least a hundred days trying to take Oyaji’s head before Marco’s words managed to sooth his annoyance.

 

If things had turned out differently and he had been caught by either Kaido or Big Mom first, he wouldn’t be able to survive for as long as he did on the Moby Dick, hell his treatment would be totally different –losing one of his limbs and locked up in the prison where his blood flow freely till he agree to serve Kaido and God knows what Big Mom will do to him-. Those two greedy bastards definitely wouldn’t take it too well if he had tried to assassinate either one of them, he would be caught by their other underlings and be executed for what he tried to do.

 

“Did you find out the destination where Kuma was planning to send them to?”

 

Receiving a shrug from Sabo, “I don’t really know that part didn’t come up in the conversation.”

 

Frowning at that answer, “Well all of them will need to train before they could step foot into the New World and I’m known as a horrible teacher, there’s no way where I could teach anyone and I can’t anyone for help.”

 

“Well, maybe we should call Silvers Rayleigh?” Sabo mused.

 

“Who is that?”

 

Gapping at the question, it took Sabo a few minutes before he could make his jaw work and answer it, “You have been talking so much about the Pirate King yet you don’t know the name of his First Mate?!”

 

“Oh, so that’s his name. I only know him as the Dark Knight.” Zoro muttered out loudly enough for everyone to hear.

 

Palming his face, “What do I do with you guys?” Sabo desperately whispered out.

 

Chucking, “Where can we find him?” Robin asked.

 

“Sabaody Archipelago at Shakky’s Rip-off Bar, Rayleigh is a ship coater so he could help to coat Thousand Sunny while he trains all of you.”

 

Before Luffy could command the rest of his crew to set sail, “It’s best to stay here until all of the Marine Admiral have left the island before heading there,” turning his head towards his second younger brother, “Sabo do you mind keeping all of us update on the news at Sabaody Archipelago?”

 

“Not a problem, as much as I want to stay here I can’t do it. Unless I want reinforcement to come and drag me back to the base.” A sheepish smile is on Sabo’s face while he thinks about his other colleagues who will no doubt come after him and kick his ass all the way to Sunday.

 

Narrowing his eyes, “You’ve been skipping out on all of your work again didn’t you?”

 

Acting nonchalant, “It’s not like I **always** skip out on my work,” pouting at Ace, “I’m not like Luffy you know?”

 

Managing to prevent himself from rolling his eyes at the childishness his slightly-younger brother is showing him, “That still doesn’t tell me whether you’ve been skipping out on your work or not.”

 

“Well don’t pick on the small details! Anyway I have to leave now to get back to the base, contact me if you guys need anything ya?” Sabo demanded, waving to everyone before setting off.

 

Shaking his head at Luffy’s cheers of being able to spend more time with Ace, at least the powers he had were able to keep his brothers safe and he is thankful for it.

 

  

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Do you know Lafitte’s hide out on Raijin Island?” Shanks asked, look at his loyal First Mate.

 

Blowing out the smoke he had inhaled, “From what our source gathered he is living in the abandon mining caves near the mountain, and while he is living there it doesn’t seem like he is keeping a low profile. Civilians around the town have seen him walking around the market area.”

 

Narrowing his eyes at the information, “That meant that Laffitte believed that Teach will finish whatever thing Teach and him had made.” Shanks mused; he couldn’t decide whether Laffitte is stupid and arrogant enough to think that Teach will be able to finish his job or that the guy believed that Teach is the person who he will follow for the rest of his life. “We will need to have his schedule on when he will back in the caves and a small handful of us should head in to capture him.”

 

“I agree, we wouldn’t know whether he have traps inside the caves to protect himself.” Yasopp agreed.

 

Chewing the food and swallowing them before he open his mouth, “Who are you assigning?” Lucky Roo ask.

 

“Benn because his observation haki is the best, Yasopp for back-up and long range attacks and of course I will be heading down.” Shanks answered easily. Before any of them could complain, he held up his hand to stop them from saying anything, “I will go and none of you will be able to stop me, Ace is Roger’s child and as all of you know Roger is also my old Captain, I will not allow anyone of you to leave me here.”

 

 Yasopp, Lucky Roo and Rockstar looked like they want to argue, Benn hold up his hand to stop them too, he didn’t need the additional headaches from their screaming match, “He won’t change his mind so we might as well just go with it. Plus Shanks could use Haoshoku Haki which might end up helping us with the battle against Laffitte.”

 

Seeing as no one wanted to argue after Benn had pointed those out, Shanks couldn’t help the smirk from appearing on his face. “We’ll use one of the smaller ships to reach Raijin Island, there’s no need to warn Laffitte about our arrival and search for the entrance of the cave once we reach Benn will use his observation haki to see if he can sense anyone inside. If Laffitte is sensed inside we will head in, if not we will make an invisible trap to capture him when he comes back. Be ready to set off in two hours.”

 

Nodding their head, no one could find any fault in Shanks’ plan, and they quickly started discussing about the traps they could and should use against Laffitte which will be undetected by an ex-police officer. Letting the noise wash and sooth his slightly tense body, he couldn’t let his worries of his old Captain’s only child cloud his mind, it wouldn’t do anyone any good if he had let his guard down and gotten injured.

 

Well… the fight had been disappointing. He may have over-estimated Laffitte’s powers or his battle with Whitebeard may have screwed with his perception of how a normal fight should be? He doesn’t really know, but anyway the fight had been absolutely disappointing and totally depressing. Nothing more he could say about it.

 

He wouldn’t stand a chance against a one-on-one fight with him much-less against some of his strongest crew, really Shanks couldn’t help but wonder what in the world did Marshall. D. Teach sees in this person.

 

“Red Hair Shanks, it’s a pleasure to see you personally.” Laffitte smiled although his it looked more like a grimace than a grin.

 

Letting the ruthless mask slide onto his face, “Oh really? I thought that our previous meeting would have already clued you in on what I had planned.” Releasing a weaker version of his Haoshoku Haki, creating a wave of tension on the tied up man; there isn’t any need to knock out Laffitte (he didn’t have the time to waste on something like that), “Now, will you tell me what Marshall. D. Teach and you were talking about?”

 

Spitting at the ground, “I don’t need to tell you anything!” Laffitte snarled out, thrashing against the ropes that bind him.

 

Smirking, “Even if Marshall. D. Teach is dead?” Laffitte’s wide eyes told him that he man didn’t know about this information, “You didn’t know? The news is pasted n the front page of the news crew you know? Guess you were too arrogant to think that Teach would be killed.”

 

“Impossible! That man is part of the ‘D’ family there’s no way where he will be killed that easily!”

 

Chuckling under his breath, “I **told** you that you were too **arrogant** ,” shifting forward, Shanks didn’t need to worry about Laffitte attacking him not when Benn and Yasopp is in the room with him, whispering into Laffitte’s ear, “Teach might be part of the ‘D’ family, what if I tell you that he was attacked and killed by another member of the ‘D’ family?”

 

Receiving no answers from the man, Shanks didn’t want to beat around the bush anymore, “Now will you reveal those secrets to me or would you want to do this the hard way?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, I had been forcing myself to finish whatever I've written for the first version but that was so badly written that I've finally given up and scrap the whole thing. This is the newer version and I'm proud that I finish it within two days XD Wish i have scrap the earlier version sooner.
> 
> FINALLY THEY HAVE THEIR HANDS ON LAFFITTE!! Sadly this also meant that this story will be ending in another maybe 4 to 5 chapters. I'm writing down the basic outlines for the remaining chapters and hope that it would help me to update faster.
> 
> Thank you all for waiting and reading! Please do give me any feedback on my mistakes or anything that I could improve on and comments! =D


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Grammar mistakes, didn't proof read it and no beta.

 

 

 

 

Looking at the beaten, bleeding and unconsciously limp body of Laffitte, Shanks couldn’t stop the smirk from appearing on his face. He might be known as the most laid-back person among all of the Yonko and wouldn’t do anything if someone insulted him however he **_is fiercely protective_** of those who he considered nakama or people who he respects.

 

What Teach and Laffitte had done is something that he can’t look away, not after hearing what the coward revealed to him while they were torturing him.

 

They had been planning to kill Whitebeard so that Teach could have the Yonko’s status. While it isn’t something new –there are tons of people out there, who plans to kill either one of them for their title- their plans are what disgust him.

 

To learn that Teach had only joined the Whitebeard’s crew to have a higher chances of finding the devil fruit that he wanted, that he had planned to launch a surprise attack on that will end the life of Fourth Division Commander’s Thatch life just because the poor man had found the devil fruit that Teach wanted, that Teach **knew** Ace would chase after him no matter what Whitebeard says, capturing Ace and handing him over to the Marines resulting in a war where Whitebeard’s era will end and absorb Whitebeard’s devil fruit for his own greedy gain.

 

Who wouldn’t be disgusted by how the coward’s mind actually works? Clenching his fist, it’s hard for him to hold back the urge to kill the bastard in front of him but deep down he know that Whitebeard would end the life of Laffitte himself, “Chain this son of a bitch up and Yasopp, keep an eye on him while Benn and I check and collect his belongings.”

 

Turning away without waiting for an answer, he can’t stay here any longer plus it’s best to take his anger away by doing something else.

 

“Shanks, should we go through everything we collect now or later?” Benn questioned.

 

Thinking about those questions for a while, “Bring everything; we can slowly go through everything while we sail towards the old man. Lucky Roo had finished preparing the prison right?”

 

“He did.”

 

“Good, while he didn’t show any signs of a devil fruit but it’s safer to chain Laffitte up with sea stone. Make sure we treat all of his fatal injuries, we didn’t need the old man to make a huge fuss just because he died from his injuries.”

 

“Got it, I’ll make sure of that.”

 

It took them longer than they like to gather every single thing they found in the first large open area where Laffitte had used as his living space, having to check through nook and cranny to make sure they don’t’ miss a single thing. The amount they found is staggering, he managed to glimpse some of the paper which he had gathered and believed they belong to Marshall. D. Teach’s since they are about Whitebeard, it took them twice as long to get everything up on their ship. Benn doesn’t know if he is able to look and sort through everything within the unknown time frame they have before meeting up with Whitebeard.

 

If he wasn’t present when Laffitte spill the beans about Teach’s plan, he would have questioned about Teach’s sanity for leaving everything here. However it’s because that man is confident that his plans will work that’s why he left them here, without a doubt if Ace hadn’t kept his eyes on Teach or somehow managed to know about the betrayal, there’s a high chance where Teach’s plan will occur.

 

“Bring all those to my room; we’ll go through everything there. I’ll head to the navigation team to tell them to set off.” Shanks ordered.

 

“Hey, set sail right now! You guys know the location of the old man right?”

 

“Welcome back Captain! Last I’ve heard, Whitebeard are heading towards Fishman Island.”

 

“Fishman Island, why would they head over there?” Shanks questioned.

 

“That’s because they heard that the Straw Hat crew was supposing to head over to Sabaody Archipelago to have their ship coated to cross into the New World.” Rockstar answered, “And I said supposed to because I’ve managed to hack into the Marine’s call and overheard that they didn’t appear.”

 

“They didn’t appear? Did something happen to Luffy?”

 

Shrugging, “Maybe they found out the Marines were planning to swamp the island to catch them and decided to wait before getting their ship coated?”

 

“That’s possible. Maybe I should give Ray-san a call?” Shanks mused for a moment before turning away, “Well, map out the fastest route and get us to the old man? We don’t have the time to waste.”

 

“Yes sir!”

 

Heading back to his room, Benn should be inside reading through all of those confiscated stuff. He **should** update the Whitebeards about Laffitte’s capture but he would rather collect everything they have and make a single call, plus he wouldn’t know whether he would have an argument over the call.

 

“Shanks,” Benn called out, gaining Shanks’ attention as soon as he walks into the room, “I don’t think we should be going through all of these.” He continued, waving the bunch of papers he held in the direction where all of the confiscated items are.

 

“What do you mean?” Shanks questioned, quickly closing the distance between the both of them.

 

“From all that I’ve read, these contain sensitive information about Whitebeard and their allies.”

 

Tensing up from the information, this whole situation had just taken a turn for the worse. It’s a good thing he had asked Benn to be the one to go through them. He did trust all of his recruits to look after his back but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any idiots who will do everything and anything they could to get their hands on those information and sell them to earn some quick bucks.

 

He had experienced enough betrayal to know how it starts.

 

“Continue going through them and take note on those which are beneficial to us except for the old man’s information. Pile any on the old man to one side; I’ll personally bring it over during the meeting with him.” Shanks ordered, setting down on the ground.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Having his youngest brother and his crew staying for an additional week had been hectic, and the fears of having his food resources; the animals living on the island, diminishing down at an alarming rate. Ace has feared for the worst; where they might need to travel to another island to purchase their supplies and using his almost non-existent wealth.

 

Thankfully Zoro and Sanji had helped to lessen his burdens by catching anything they could from the ocean; Sanji had even managed to convince Nami to part with some of her accumulated money to pay for the resources they used on this island. He **didn’t** want to take them; he wouldn’t really need them, but Nami and Sanji refused to take them back and he actually caught the both of them discussing about increasing the price if they have to stay for another week.

 

Sabo called at the perfect time, updating him about whatever he could get from Kuma and the situation at Sabaody Archipelago leaving him to update the rest.

 

“Guys, Sabo just called!” He shouted out as soon as he found Luffy and his nakamas.

 

“Oh~” abandoning the game that Usopp and Chopper had come up with; to redirect Luffy’s attention and stop him from whining, his youngest brother rushed to his side but he didn’t say until the other eight members are within hearing range, “so what did Sabo say?”

 

“The Marines have been ordered to clear Sabaody Archipelago but it’s best for you guys to stay here for another day before heading off.”

 

“Oh, that is good news!” Nami cheered, thinking about the money that she didn’t need to pay Ace for their prolong stay here.

 

As if he could see through Nami’s mind, “You can find Shakky’s Rip-off Bar at Grove 13, Nami I believe you know how to get there right?” Ace informs them.

 

Nodding her head, “Ah, I have asked around the locals before heading here.”

 

“Okay! Let’s have one last party before we set sail tomorrow!” Luffy cried out causing his other nakama to agree with him.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at the still-growing pile of Whitebeard’s sensitive information, Shanks isn’t really surprise that Teach had been able to get his hands on those information (for all he know, Teach could have made up some excuse to go through all of those information and he could have used those time to note all of those information down) but he is alarmed at the amount that Teach had managed to get his hands on.

 

Looking at the still-growing pile of information belonging to Whitebeard, some of them are information that most people would have, for example the strengths, skills, abilities and weakness of each of the old man’s crew, the routes that they normally sail in sadly, those are far and few.

 

Most of what Benn and he had shifted through is information so sensitive it could have brought down the crew of the Strongest Man in the World. Shanks isn’t really that surprise that Teach had been able to get his hands on those information; for all he know Teach could have made up some excuses to get his hands on them and he could have used those time to note all of those information down, however he is alarmed at the amount of information the greedy bastard was able to get his hands on.

 

“Holy shit,” Shanks exclaimed, “I might not be friends with Marco but I know that he is someone who is meticulous so how the **_fuck_** did the greedy bastard managed to get his hands on the schedules of the old man’s and their ally’s night watches, notes on the timing of their shift changes and the blind spots, the names of the island where they usually buy their supplies from and the health condition of the old man?”

 

“Well, he could have just sneaked into the phoenix’s room without anyone noticing, with the amount of work the phoenix has to do, it wouldn’t be surprising if he didn’t notice one or two pieces of his paperwork missing.” Benn answered easily.

 

Pouting at Benn’s intelligent answer, “Then what about all of that information he gathered about the other Yonko and barbarian-pirates?”

 

Rolling his eyes at the childishness his Captain is displaying, “He could have just paid some information broker to gather everything for him.”

 

“You always love to destroy my play time.” Shanks whined for a while before the playfulness disappears, “But this is a serious problem.”

 

Benn didn’t need Shanks to say anything to know how serious this situation is right now. They might not be known as an ally of the Whitebeards and the two Captains would always get into an argument over simple things however his Captain respects Whitebeard; all of them too, would never even think about betraying the Whitebeards and would help them if they ever ask for it. But he couldn’t be certain that Marshall. D. Teach haven’t sold those information to someone else.

 

If the Marines found out about Whitebeard’s illness and health condition, they would have planned to do something to take down the Strongest Man in the World.

 

“When will the meeting be held?”

 

“In a week’s time, we are meeting the old man at Fishman Island. I heard that they are waiting for Luffy to cross over to the New World to ask him about Ace.”Shanks answered easily.

 

Frowning at the answer he receives, “They are going to interrogate Luffy?”

 

Snorting softly at Benn’s accusation, “As if the old man would interrogate Luffy, hell even if they did there’s no way where Luffy would think it as an interrogation.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Nami, why are we docking at Grove 13 straight away?” Luffy whined as he rolled around on the ground.

 

“Shut up! We should meet with Rayleigh and see if he is willing to train us first and not think about adventure!” Nami roared back.

 

Pouting at the back view of his navigator, Luffy doesn’t and could never understand why Nami is always so against the idea of him going on an adventure especially when her dream is to draw a complete map of the world. How could she do that when she doesn’t want to go on the island they come across?

 

“Ma ma Luffy-san, we might not be able to visit Sabaody Archipelago now but I am sure that Rayleigh-san is more than willing to tell you story of his time as a pirate.” Brook cut in, hoping that this will be able to please his captain.

 

With stars shining in his eyes, “Really, you think that Rayleigh will do that?”

 

Smiling at his young and slightly naïve captain, “Yohohoho, I’m sure Luffy-san.” He didn’t need to look back to know that his other nakama is smiling at him.

 

“Brook, I don’t remember whether I’ve asked you about this but do you know the way to Shakky’s Rip-off bar?”

 

Nodding his head, “Please allow me to guide the way, the Rumbar Pirates was heading to Sabaody Archipelago before the attack happened and I was stuck on Florian Triangle.”

 

Everyone heard the nostalgia in Brook’s tone but didn’t comment anything about it; all of them found out what happened to the Rumbar Pirates when they were in Thriller Bark. They could do anything they could to make sure Brook wouldn’t feel the same loneliness he experienced while trapped in Florian triangle however they **_wouldn’t_** make Brook forget the memories of his previous crew.

 

They understood the pain, after all each of them have lost someone important to all of them. And they know how important those memories are to Brook.

 

Those memories are Brook’s treasures, his only memento left of the Rumbar Pirates. They aren’t that heartless to force him to forget about it no matter how painful it is for Brook.

 

 It might sound stupid, by keeping those memories of people who they have lost close to their hearts would only bring them pain, guilt and the helplessness they experience in the time of their death however it is up to them whether they want to move on or not, because the moment they forget those people who they have lost is the moment when they really dies.

 

Plus those deaths were what made all of them to who they are today.

 

With Sanji and Chopper keeping an eye on Zoro while Franky and Usopp keeping their eyes on Luffy, all of them safely reached Shakky’s Rip-off Bar without any incident happening. 

 

Nami couldn’t help but pray to whatever God that is out there and who is willing to listen to her pleads that this ‘peace’ would last whenever they dock at a new island. A small voice chided her, there’s no way any Gods out there is willing to listen to her, or if they are willing to, they can’t do anything. Not when her Captain seems to find trouble everywhere he goes. She should just enjoy this ‘peace’ for now, God knows when will be the next time she will ever experience it.

 

“Another turn here and we will be able to reach Shakky’s Rip-off Bar.” Brook cheered, twirling his sword in the shape of a cane around.

 

“Super! Do you think they have cola there?” Franky asked.

 

“Maybe they won’t after all it’s a bar. They might only serve booze there.” Robin answered.

 

“You’re lying!” Franky shouted back.

 

“Oh shut up you bastard! You’ll find out soon enough when you reach the bar.” Sanji snarled out, kicking Franky but holding back his strength where it wouldn’t harm his nakama. The others could only laugh at the display.

 

Looking at the familiar straw-hat, Rayleigh **_knew_** who the kid; who just walked into his wife’s bar, is. How could he not know when his best friend (who is also his Captain) had worn the same hat during his earlier voyage? Plus a call from one of their two cabin boys, gushing about a child the brat met while sailing in the weakest blue had given enough information for him to create a mental image of the child.

 

Rayleigh hadn’t know what to think when Shanks had called him, in his account he isn’t considered closed to Shanks; compared to Roger and Buggy he isn’t at all, while the both of them did contact and talk to one another mainly about Rouge’s whereabouts but that’s about it.

 

The red-hair brat who respects Roger like a God was devastated after Roger’s death (he could hear it in his voice, nothing like the brat he remembered while they were still sailing) and he had been expecting the same voice, questioning if he had anymore updates for him to check. Imagine how shocked he was when the cheer, the liveliness was back in the brat’s voice and he was actually **gushing** about another brat that he met in East Blue; the same **voice** he used when the brat gushes about Roger.

 

Seems like the brat that caught the red-hair brat’s attention finally reached Sabaody Archipelago, Shanks will be excited to hear this update from him. He will call when they set off for the New World; he learnt about the promise the red-hair brat made with this child.

 

“Monkey. D. Luffy,” Rayleigh calls out, “you have finally made it here huh?”

 

“Old man, how do you know my name?”

 

“Of course people will know your damn name! Your name is pasted all over the front page of newspaper because of the amount of shit you attracted!” Nami screeched, slapping the back of Luffy’s head.

 

Laughing out at the image, Rayleigh could remember doing the same thing when Roger was still alive; his best friend is nothing but a trouble magnet. Shakky; who have been watching everything behind the bar counter, relaxed when she heard the laughter from him, it’s not like she doesn’t know how to take care of herself (he gave her enough training whenever they visit her) but she must have thought that a fight would have broken out here.

 

“I’ve heard about you before you even sail out as a pirate, from a certain red-hair brat of course.” Rayleigh smirked, knowing that some of the less-naïve member will catch on his words.

 

“I didn’t know that you kept in touch with Red-Hair Shanks.” Robin mused.

 

“Old man, you know about Shanks?” Luffy asked, delighted at the news.

 

“Of course, I was his Captain’s First Mate.” Rayleigh answered, beckoning the crew in, “Come on have a seat and we can talk.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Shit!” Shanks’ cursed out loud enough to gain Benn’s attention.

 

“What’s wrong?” Benn asked, getting up from where he had been seated to check on his Captain.

 

Shanks didn’t give a verbal reply just passing the paper which he had been reading just a few seconds earlier to his First Mate. It didn’t take too long before Benn started cursing too, and Shanks isn’t too surprise to hear his polite First Mate cursing.

 

The paper had contained enough information and evidence to show that Vergo; a Marine Vice Admiral and the head of G-5, is actually a mole send by Donquixote Doflamingo; one of the seven Shichibukai. Normally they wouldn’t have to worry about the connection Doflamingo have with Vergo however Shanks have read through some information (that Teach managed to gather) about the plans and what the Shichibukai had done in Dressrosa.

 

But with how long Vergo had known Doflamingo, there’s no doubt that Vergo is actually a mole and is shipping information to Doflamingo.

 

“We will need to tell Garp about this.” Benn voiced out his thoughts.

 

Nodding his head, “That is if Garp is able to fool Sengoku to be able to take-par in the meeting, anyway I should go and call them.” Shanks answered.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“So you guys want me to coat your ship and train all of you?” Rayleigh repeated what Nami told him, keeping his eye on their blond cook who is trying his best to help Shakky no matter how much his wife is waving him off and demanding him to just sit down and relax for once.

 

“Old man, will you help us?” Luffy asked while chewing on the food Shakky had prepared in the short amount of time.

 

Chuckling while he watch their sharp-shooter and the reindeer clip their Captain at the back of his head while demanding him to chew and swallow before he speaks, “I’ll do it but first I want you to answer me this question.” Dragging out the silence for a while, it’s been a while since he could tease rookies (who are still wet behind their ears) he might as well drag it as long as he could, “All of you were supposed to reach Sabaody Archipelago a week and a few days ago so where did all of you disappear to?”

 

Silence stretched on while tension racks up, for some unknown reason no one wanted to answer his question.

 

“You can’t tell me?” Rayleigh asked, keeping an eye on everyone’s facial expression to see if he could get any clues.

 

“If we didn’t answer that question does that mean you wouldn’t coat our ship and wouldn’t train us?” Nami questioned.

 

Before Rayleigh could reply, Luffy had cut him off, “We went to visit my brother!” he answered before anyone could stop him.

 

“Brother? Shanks didn’t tell me that you have a brother.”

 

“I have two brothers, Sabo and Ace!” Luffy got it out before any of his nakama could stop him.

 

“Ace?” Rayleigh repeated, “Do you mean Portgas. D. Ace?”

 

Upon hearing Ace’s full name, Zoro, Usopp, Nami and Brook quickly laid a hand on their weapon, Sanji shifted slightly, leaning all of his weight on one leg while the other is slightly raised up from the ground, Franky’s fist tighten and was raised slightly, Robin had her hands crossed in front of her chest, ready to call out her devil fruit abilities and poor Chopper had a quick mental breakdown first before gripping onto his hat still slightly panicking about what he should do.

 

“Yes,” Luffy drone out, the cheerfulness disappearing  from his tone while he tilted the straw-hat till it covers at least one third of his face, “I won’t tell you anything even if you ask me about him.”

 

 

True to Luffy’s words, no matter how much Rayleigh asks or threatens, no one spoke a single word or make a single noise. They couldn’t say that they have spent a lot of time with Ace; not when Ace is way more comfortable sitting down in a corner and watch them interact, but they view Ace as their nakama even if the man himself doesn’t want to sail with them.

 

They don’t leave their nakama behind and they don’t betray one another not matter how dangerous it is for them.

 

Seeing how the young crew acted, Rayleigh knew he won’t be getting any usable information from them and settle back down in his previous seat. Maybe he should change his usual method of attaining information before any explanation should be fixed, if the Straw-Hat crew hear his explanation they might tell him what he knows.

 

“I won’t ask about Ace’s location or what happened on Whitebeard’s ship,” Rayleigh started, “his father was my best friend and my Captain. All I wanted to know is his status and whether he needed help.”

 

Luffy’s stare intensified and turned heavy, as if the child is looking through his whole being, looking at all of the deeds which he had done in the past and checking if he was lying about his worry for Ace. It lasted for a few seconds yet it felt like an hour to Rayleigh, as puzzled as he is, he wasn’t given any time to process what just happen as Luffy started talking.

 

“Ace is fine and he doesn’t need any help. Even if he does, my other brother will be able to help him.”

 

Frowning at the answer he was given (on a plate) it doesn’t say much but Rayleigh knows that this is all he will be able to get from Luffy and his crew, “I will coat your ship and train all of you-“

 

Everyone cheered before he could finish, but that’s okay. Those kids will learn how much of a demon he is once the training starts; Shanks had once dubbed him as the Demon King from Hell. Once the cheers had died down, “We will have to train on another island and it will take two years.”

 

Jaws dropped to the ground when all of them heard the amount of time needed him to train them, Rayleigh couldn’t help but raises one of his eyebrow, “Do all of you think you’re good to sail into the New World at the level you’re at?” He asked.

 

“We do realise that we aren’t strong enough that’s why we had asked you to train us.” Nami answered with a frown on her face, not getting the point that Rayleigh is getting at.

 

“Ray-san meant that is how much grown all of you needed before you’re strong enough to step into the New World without getting ‘eaten’ by the other weaker pirates there.” Shakky answered, grinding the tip of her cigarette against the ashtray she kept close by.

 

“I got it. If it takes two years to get us stronger, I’ll take it. As long as it lets me get stronger, I don’t mind how long it takes.”

 

The determination in Luffy’s eyes made Rayleigh see the shadow of his best friend for a moment. Shanks did tell him how the child he met reminded him of Roger but he didn’t understood what the red-hair brat meant until now.

 

Smiling, “Good, I have the perfect island where I could train all of you in mind but will need to make some calls first. You guys might want to stock up on your supplies, enough to last us a little bit through the Calm Belt.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Brat, did you find some information for us?” Edward Newgate asked into the tiny Den Den Mushi that is in the middle of his palm.

 

 _“We do, I heard that you are sailing to Fishman Island to ambush Straw-Hat Luffy we will meet you there.”_ The seriousness in Shanks tone told everyone that whatever he found isn’t any good news.

 

“Why don’t you just update us through this call?”

 

_“This isn’t something which could be done over the phone.”_

 

“How long would you need to reach us?”

 

_“At least another three weeks if the winds are in our favour, if not it will be in four.”_

 

“I understand, we will wait for your arrival.”

 

 _”Whitebeard,”_ Shanks called out before he could hang up the call, _“make sure all of your commanders are there when I arrive. This is something which all of them need to know.”_

 

Closing both of his eyes, he isn’t looking forward to the meeting with Shanks. He could feel dread creeping up behind him but for the sake of his precious children, he didn’t have a choice.

 

“All of you heard what the brat says,” His voice boomed out, making sure that every single child of his will hear his orders, “make sure to get ready for the meeting.”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was done yesterday (actually this morning at like 4am) but since the internet here was down, I wasn't able to upload it. I'm SO glad that I've planned and created short drafts for each chapters, I don't have to waste time cracking my head.
> 
> Hope all of you enjoyed this chapter, please leave feedbacks or comments thank you! =D


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really have to do this here. I fucking LOVE One Piece Wiki. That website saved my ass countless of time, and I bloody LOVE it to death.
> 
>  
> 
> Warnings: Grammar mistakes, not proof-read.

 

 

 

 

It didn’t take too long for them to gather enough supplies for them to get to Rusukaina Island, they did find out the island is located in the Calm Belt; notorious for the large amounts of Sea Kings there, and it is also within the territory of the Kuja warriors; rules and lead by Bao Hancock the only female Shichibukai, however that’s all they know since Rayleigh wouldn’t reveal any more information to them till they set sail.

 

And now they have set sailed and would be reaching the Calm Belt within a few days, Nami –with the help of Robin and Sanji- had gathered everyone onto the deck where Rayleigh was last seen to gather more information. It seems like Rayleigh **know** what she had in mind, he just stood there, waited for everyone to gather before making himself comfortable for the questions that are coming.

 

“Are there anything that we need to take note of when we step into the Kuja warrior’s territory?” Nami asked once everyone is quiet and sort of distracted by the snacks that Sanji made for everyone.

 

Nodding his head, “There might be some unexpected conditions Hancock might throw at Luffy and I wouldn’t know till we meet her but don’t worry too much, I will step in if those conditions are too over the top.”

 

“Is there anything else?”

 

Humming for a moment, “Hancock absolutely hates men and has ordered the Kuja warriors to execute any men they come across so I would like all of you to stay on the ship and out of sight while I bring Luffy and the two ladies with me to meet Hancock.” Turning his attention to Chopper, “It’s best that you stay on the ship too, Hancock doesn’t like anything cute. I wouldn’t know what she might do so it’s just safer for you to stay on the ship.”

 

“ _AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”_ Chopper shrieked. Running around in circles while he imagine the attacks thrown at him from the only female Shichibukai, it didn’t matter if he doesn’t know Hancock’s ability and strength, he **will** be beaten up. “ _I’M GOING TO DIE!”_

 

“Chopper, you have other non-cute forms right?” Zoro pointed out, confused why Chopper is making such a big fuss over such a small thing.

 

Abruptly stopping in his run, “Oh,” blinking several times at Zoro, “I’ve totally forgotten about them.” He confessed but no one is paying attention to Chopper.

 

“Y-You actually used your brain for once.” Nami whispered, looking ready to faint.

 

“Did you eat something wrong or are you actually sick right now?”

 

“Maybe it is the location and position that he took his nap in? I could faintly remember where and the position, maybe we should try them again to see if this intelligence will appear?” Sanji asked as he breathe in a large lungful of his cigarette smoke, “We will be able to save quite a lot of time we waste to search for the lost of the Marimo and the trouble that we get into because this idiot only think about muscle training and fight.” Robin and Brook could only laugh.

 

Spluttering at his nakamas who are **teasing** him, Zoro gave up on rebuking them when he couldn’t form a single word and just ended up giving all of his nakamas the stink-eye causing them to give in and laugh at him.

 

“It’s a good thing that all of the rooms on Thousand Sunny are linked to one another since I wouldn’t know when we will be able to finish all of Hancock’s condition, I’ll take a Den Den Mushi along with me so if any of the Kuja warriors came onboard and found you guys, call me.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Watching all of his children getting Moby ready for docking at Fishman Island with a slight spring in their steps, it’s been a few years since they have last returned here even if this is one of the islands that are under their protection. With their famed Fishman Karate, enhanced abilities, additional environmental advantages of this island being under the sea and Jinbe being there to be the first line of defence, they are usually not needed to get rid of any troubles of other pirates bring.

 

They do travel across the New World into Paradise a lot but they usually take a different route in order to not bring any trouble to Fishman Island, with Big Mom having her eyes on Fishman Island didn’t help much. She might use the chance where they are too far away from Fishman Island to attack and take over the Island. They couldn’t let that happen not when they know how Big Mom is willing to kill everything that stands in her way.

 

Plus he would also need to fill Jinbe in with the incident with Ace; no doubt his son had read the newspaper and heard the rumours about what happened here. Listening to both the newspaper; where those people were under the World Government and Marine’s thumb, and the rumours; where those are nothing but just lies created by humans for their own entertainment, are not a good source of information for Jinbe.

 

“Oyaji,” Blenheim called out, “we’ll be done within a few more minutes.”

 

Nodding his head, “Shanks will be reaching in a few more days so those who wanted to visit the island can do so.” He ordered. It’s good for all of his children to unwind from all of the stress everyone had accumulated from the chilling call they received from Shanks.

 

That is for those who are heading into Fishman Island. There are a small handful of his children who will not leave the ship no matter what he said (Marco is one of them) with Shanks reaching in a few days and that there are other pirates who are on Fishman Island who might group together to take him out while they have this chance. No way will his children allow something like this to happen on their watch.

 

With his age and accomplishment during his years as a pirate, he had the silly thoughts and believes that he wouldn’t have that much stress as when he had first sailed out as a pirate, the incidents within this year had told him otherwise. With all those additional stress and worries, he should try and relax as much as possible during these few days, he know he wouldn’t be able to relax after the meeting he have with Shanks.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Giving the infamous Straw-Hat Luffy a quick glance, Boa Hancock didn’t hear the **_male_** pirate captain make a single noise during the time when Rayleigh was talking, and she didn’t want to show the other two Kuja warriors; who had accompany her with her two sisters for their protection, that Straw-Hat Luffy deserve her attention.

 

“You want to use Rusukaina Island to train the whole Straw-Hat crew?” She repeated what she heard from Rayleigh.

 

“Yes that’s right.”

 

Turning to the two Kuja warriors, “Leave us, I wish to speak with Rayleigh in private for a moment.” Hancock ordered with the two quickly bowing to their Empress and left them alone there,  as soon as the two are far enough, “I know that you’ve helped us in the past but I can’t just let you use the island just because you asked me.”

 

Holding up both of his hand, “I understand, I am willing to follow the conditions that you set for us to use Rusukaina Island,” pointing to Luffy, “Luffy have also agreed to any conditions that you’ve set.”

 

Nodding her head, “I demand a battle with my two sisters. If Luffy win against the both of them, I will allow you to use the island.”

 

“Luffy, are you okay with this arrangement?”

 

“Ya, I’m perfectly okay with it!” Luffy beamed at the other four.

 

Blinking at the scene in front of them, this has to be the second time (the first person had been Rayleigh) where a **_guy_** had taken a look at Hancock and didn’t gush over her or fall down onto their feet over her beauty even Marigold and Sandersonia’s mind were slightly blown by this.

 

“A-Ah, Sandersonia please go and have the arena ready for the battle. Marigold please warn the others about the battle that will happening soon.” Hancock managed to maintain her composure.

 

It only took half an hour to get the arena ready and gathered all of the Kuja Warriors and civilians, the news about their Empress having a visitor had spread around and people have been getting the arena ready before Sandersonia reached them and the other slightly higher ranking warriors had slowly guided groups of people to be seated in the viewing area.

 

“Do you remember what I had told you?” Rayleigh asked as they stare out into the large battle arena.

 

“Ya, I remember them.”

 

 

Smiling at his student, “Good luck in there.” He whispered while giving a light push to Luffy’s back, the signal for Luffy to walk into the arena for the fight; more like a show, to prove that he is worthy for Hancock to listen to his demands.

 

“Well, let’s get this started.” Luffy muttered.

 

“Nami, Robin why didn’t the both of want to visit Amazon Lily? Rayleigh-san did say that it’s perfectly safe for the both of you to visit.” Chopper finally asked the question that had been bothering him.

 

“With the reputation the Marines have made up and given us, it’s impossible to be viewed as nothing but the typical pirates who are here to steal every single treasure and to create chaos.” Nami answered, looking up from the book which she had picked to spend the time with, “And Hancock haven’t accepted us yet, without the acceptance from their Empress there’s no way where the Kuja warriors will view us as nothing but enemies. Might as well keep the trouble that Luffy **always** attracts to a minimum and just stay on the ship till Luffy finishes the condition Hancock gave him.”

 

“Nami-swan is so clever~!” Sanji gushed as he presented his snacks to Robin.

 

“What do you think the conditions are?” Usopp asked from where he had been tweaking his weapon.

 

“Luffy will most likely have to battle against Hancock’s sisters; Marigold and Sandersonia, and win against them. Of course there will be spectators watching the battle and if Luffy didn’t win the battle there is a high chance where Hancock will demand his execution.”

 

“Robin, I know you find their reactions amusing but you should really _stop_ saying all these dreadful stuffs.” Franky commented as he eyed both Chopper and Usopp who are freaking out at what Robin just told them.

 

Glaring at Robin, Zoro quickly turned his attention back to Chopper, who had lunged at him and is cutting off the circulation to his arm, “Don’t worry too much about Luffy, he’s a strong person and wouldn’t lost to Marigold and Sandersonia.” Giving Chopper two pats on the head, “Plus don’t forget about his luck.” Zoro added as an after-thought.

 

“Oh ya, I’ve totally forgotten about Luffy’s luck.” Franky confessed.

 

“Well, I wonder what Luffy’s luck will be like if we make him gamble.” Sanji mused as he delivered the last snack to Chopper and Zoro.

 

“Oh~ that’s a good idea. Maybe I should see what happens?”

 

Robin glanced over at Nami, “What if Luffy’s luck doesn’t extend to the casino? Not only will he lose all of the money but he will also get us into deep debts.”

 

“I will beat him up!” Nami snarled back.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Shoving  the Captain of the Straw-Hat crew through the door of her private room with her two sisters following behind her, Hancock is still trying to wrap her mind about what she had just witness in the arena; where Luffy had used his body to cover Sandersonia’s back from everyone’s view.

 

“W-Why did you do that?” Hancock demanded.

 

Giving a confused look at Hancock, “What do you mean?”

 

“Why did you use your body to cover the mark on my back? We **were** fighting! Why bothered leaving your back open like that?!”

 

Scratching the back of his head, “Rayleigh gave me a brief explanation of how he met the three of you.”

 

Marigold gasped for a while, “And? That’s it? It still doesn’t explain ** _WHY_** you used your body to cover Sandersonia’s back!”

 

“Did you cover Sandersonia’s back because we will be in your debts?” Hancock snarled out, this sentence made her two sisters hissed in anger.

 

“What you guys didn’t want others to see has nothing to do with the fight.” The sudden change of tone in Luffy’s voice stunned the three, “My oldest brother has always been bothered by the fact that he is related to a person that everyone hates, and I know that he would rather die than let anyone find out about it. So I figured that it’s the same for you.”

 

Sandersonia’s face paled rapidly, “So you know the meaning of the mark behind our backs? Rayleigh told you that the three of us were once slaves for a Noble?!”

 

Shaking his head, “He didn’t say that, I have another brother who knew about the mark on every slave’s back and he told me about it. That’s why I was able to link everything together easily.”

 

“Why weren’t you disgusted like the other people? This mark signifies that we are less than humans!” Hancock snapped.

 

“I am disgusted, not by the mark on your back but by those people who would forcefully take anyone’s freedom away and those who backed them up.” Luffy snarled, “The mark signifies you are less than humans? That’s bullshit! It’s those people who **_DARED_** to put those marks on your back are the ones who are less than humans!”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Heading to the dedicated docking location for Moby Dick in a rush, he should be preserving his image for his fellow friends and people before they take his rush as the wrong idea but he couldn’t slow down.

 

He couldn’t physically visit or call Oyaji without the Marines knowing, forcing him to make do with all the information which the newspaper provided to spoon-feed the civilians and all of them are nothing but lies that the Marines had provided to them. The other Sun Pirates had offered their help to gather reliable information but he had refused their help, he couldn’t take them away from their positions and roles of defending Fishman Island from any attacks.

 

With his Shichibukai rank and the island is under Oyaji’s protection, it wouldn’t stop fools from making a mess there. They do have their Fishman Karate to fall back on if a fight break out, sadly they weren’t natural born fighters; unlike the Mink’s tribe, and not a lot of people learn how to fight using Fishman Karate.

 

Heading up the gangplank, he didn’t have the time and patience to stop and greet his fellow friends back except for the wave he managed to give back as he headed straight for Oyaji’s throne.

 

“Jinbe,” Namur called out, waving to get his attention, “Oyaji is waiting for you in the meeting room!”

 

Smiling at his fellow Fishman and nodding his head in thanks, that’s Oyaji for you. He **always** seems to know what is going to happen with all those whom he had taken under his wings and would fully prepare for it when the time comes. Changing his course to the meeting room, he didn’t even need to knock since the door is already opened for him.

 

“Son, it’s good to see you. I would have asked how have you been but I think it’s best to update you about what happen and talk later on.” Whitebeard rumbled out as he sips from his wine cup.

 

Giving a sheepish smile, “It’s good to see you too, Oyaji. I’m sorry-“

 

“No need to apologise son.” Whitebeard smiled down, “Come, sit here. There are a lot of things which I need to update you about.”

 

“-And Shanks will be meeting us here on Fishman Island in a few more days to fill us in with what he found.”

 

Gapping slightly for a while it’s hard to get his mind around the fact that Marshall. D. Teach had been hiding his skills from everyone for that long and that the man might have planned to **_BETRAY_** them? “But-“

 

Cutting Jinbe off with a single raise of his hand, “I know what you’re going to say, while we haven’t found the evidence on our side but it seems like Shanks have found it.”

 

“Did he tell you what he found?” Jinbe asked.

 

Shaking his head, “No, he didn’t want to do it over the phone.” This sentence sends chills down Jinbe’s spine, “Is it possible for you to join us for the meeting?”

 

“There shouldn’t be any problem.”

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

If he is related to any of the feathered species he would have been preening at the glares he received from the majority of his students, well he couldn’t be blamed for this as his students **_thought_** that they could **defeat** him by fighting together.

 

He isn’t _known_ as the Dark Knight and the First Mate of the Pirate King for nothing.

 

Having been surrounded by his selfish Captain and idiotic crewmates –except Crocus- and their two troublesome cabin boys, the Oro Jackson felt like an open-air safari; where you wouldn’t know what might happen next, where the different kind of animals are living in a cramp space; absolute chaos. With Crocus who has given up on maintaining some sort of control over his nakamas, he was the only one left who had to clear up the mess which everyone made.

 

If living on the Oro Jackson felt like an open-air safari to him, living and training with Luffy and his crew would like a zoo; walk in the park for him.

 

“Most of you are quite decent in your skills except for you,” he pointed at Usopp, “and you.” Moving his finger to point at Nami.

 

“What will you teaching us?” Nami asked, letting Chopper work on her wrist.

 

“A skill that everyone in the New World would know and uses in the New World, that would greatly help all of you in the battles once you cross into the New World.” Rayleigh answered, knowing

 

“A skill that everyone in the New World would know and uses in the New World, that would greatly help all of you in the battles once you cross into the New World.” Rayleigh answered, knowing full well that he had gotten everyone’s attention.

 

“Oh~ and what is the skill called?” Luffy asked, bouncing from where he is sitting.

 

“It’s called Haki; there are three types of it. First is called Busoshoku Haki,” raising one of his hands, the colour soon turned black, “this allows you to create invisible armour around any parts of your body allowing you to both defend yourself from any harmful attacks and also increasing the strength of your attacks including bypassing any devil fruit user and the protection they receive from the fruit. A heavy concentration Busoshoku Haki on any parts of your body will turn the area black.” Holding up two fingers, “The second type of Haki is called Kenbunshoku Haki; it allows you sense the presence of others if you fully master this Haki you will be able to see presence of others even if they are concealed or too far away from normal vision. This will also allow you to predict the moves of an opponent making it easy for you to dodge them. And the last one is Haoshoku Haki; sadly this couldn’t be obtained from training. Only one person in several million people actually has this ability. This gives the user to dominate the wills of others rendering the weak-willed people unconscious however it depends on the difference in strength, the larger the power gap is, the easier to knock people out. For those who are strong enough to stand the Haki, they will experience the sensation of chills running through their body. This ability is perfect for a fight where the enemies outnumbered all of you together.”

 

Remember all the times when Garp suddenly appeared to visit his brothers and him, he have never found out **_how_** Gramps was able to hit him and make them hurt when his rubber devil fruit should have absorbed those attacks, “Oh, so Gramps used Busoshoku Haki is what Gramps uses when he hit me with his ‘Fist of Love’.”

 

“Hmm, the first two Haki would definitely help Usopp and me.” Nami added.

 

“Rayleigh, could I use the Haoshoku Haki to scare off a Sea King?” Luffy suddenly asked.

 

Smiling, “You’re asking because of the ability that Shanks had showed you when he visited Foosha village? But to answer your question, yes you could use it to scare off any Sea King. If you have to travel through the Calm Belt to cut down on travelling time due to an emergency, this skill will be useful.”

 

“Is that the reason why you had prevented us from going to the bow while we are travelling through the Calm Belt so that you could use Haoshoku Haki against the Sea Kings, preventing them from attacking the ship?” Robin asked.

 

Nodding his head, “I didn’t want it to affect anyone of you, plus Luffy have shown the ability to use Haoshoku Haki during his fight against Marigold and Sandersonia. I will need to split all of you up into groups for trainings, try not to wonder off too far on your own. There are a lot of dangerous animals around this island, unless you’re certain that you could take on those animals feel free to walk around.”

 

“Just what the fuck have we signed up for?” Nami whispered to Robin, causing her to chuckle.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Oyaji,” Vista called out, “Red-Hair will be reaching in a few more hours. Doma who was around here had just called us to confirm that.”

 

Nodding his head, “Son, please help me to notify the rest about this. And alert Neptune about this, there isn’t any need to alarm the citizen when their ship docks here.”

 

Nodding his head as a reply, Vista quickly rushes off to finish what his Captain had ordered.

 

Sighing out through his nose, it seems like everyone will be able to find out the truth soon sadly he doesn’t like the bad feeling he is getting now.

 

“Oyaji, how are you taking this whole situation?” Jinbe questioned from the side of his seat, his son hadn’t left his side since he had been updated about everything. He doesn’t blame his s on, if Marco hadn’t place that much stress on himself, Marco would have been the one in Jinbe’s place.

 

“I would feel better as soon as the brat come and share the evidence he found with us.”

 

“But what if the evidence points that Teach had been planning to betray all of us?” Jinbe prompted.

 

“There is nothing which we could do about Teach, we had already burnt his body, scattering the ashes into the sea and at least we know that Ace had saved all of us by killing Teach.” Looking up into the sky, “But I would like to know how Ace found out about Teach’s plan.”

 

Raising his eyebrow, “How could you be so sure that Ace had found out about Teach’s plan?”

 

“If Ace had just walked pass and caught the sight that Teach had been trying to kill Thatch that night, he wouldn’t have fled the ship. He would have spun a surprise attack on Teach before alerting the rest about it. The reason why Ace fled the ship must have been **how** he found out about Teach’s plan.”

 

Thinking about what Oyaji had said, “That sounds right.” Jinbe couldn’t help but agree.

 

“That is **if** Teach had planned to betray us.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't like how this chapter turned out. I wanted to rewrite this whole thing but I believe I've already made everyone wait for too long, so I decided to put this chapter up, I'm sorry if this isn't as good as my previous chapter. Actually I have this feeling telling me that after the first few chapters my writing have gone from bad to worse?
> 
> On a lighter note, this story have breached the ten chapter mark (I should have said this in the last chapter XD) officially the longest story that I have and also I have my mind blown away by the kudos and the bookmarks I've received. I wasn't expecting such a overwhelming response when I first uploaded this story, thank you everyone for giving this story a chance!
> 
> Do leave a comment or a feedback!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: I should save a copy of what I write in the previous chapter and paste it here. XD

 

 

 

 

 

Maintaining eye contact with the Strongest Man in the World; the very same person who **could** go head to head with his dead Captain, with his own hand-picked crew, they **_ARE_** supposed to be rivals. As much as he would like to keep his emotions of being a rival to the Strongest Man in the World, he just couldn’t because he is also **_friends_** with the old man from the many interactions with him.

 

Although he didn’t like to be the bringer of bad news, the information he found are too sensitive for them to leave it alone.

 

“Brat, what did you find?” Whitebeard asked, “Give me a brief summary.”

 

“Aren’t you going to wait for the rest to show up?” Shanks asked, shifting around to find a comfortable position.

 

Shaking his head, “I want to know what you have gathered before asking the rest to join us. That’s why I asked for a brief summary.”

 

Mentally rolling his eyes at the stubbornness of the old man, “Before I say anything about what I’ve found, I just wanted to tell you something.” When Whitebeard nodded his head for him to continue, “We might be considered as rivals however if you guys needed help in anything, I will offer my full support.”

 

Staring down at the brat –yes he is still considered a brat in his eyes; it doesn’t matter if the brat had reached adulthood years ago- the imagine of the cabin boy that he had seen on his rival/friend’s ship had overlapped with the brat’s appearance now. He couldn’t stop the corners of his lips from turning up at this cheeky brat who is offering his help.

 

“Cheeky brat, now give me the brief summary before my other sons crash through those doors.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

_“Eh~ so all of you are now training with the Dark Knight on Rusukaina Island?”_

 

Nodding his head even if Ace couldn’t see it through the Den Den Mushi, “Ya! The old man is so strong! None of our attacks landed on him even when all of us attacked together!”

 

_“So what is he teaching all of you?”_

“A skill called Haki, he say that everyone in the New World know that skills is that correct?” Luffy asked.

_“It’s true, that’s one of the reasons why I had lost so badly to Oyaji when I first fought against him. All the Commanders and even some of our other members know how to use haki, so it’s best to learn how to use them and train on them as much as possible. After all you want to become the Pirate King which meant that you will fight against Oyaji for that position.”_

 

“So does your Oyaji know how to use haki too?”

 

_“Of course he knows how to use them. But that’s not the reason why Oyaji is known as the Strongest Man in the World, it’s because of his precise control over his devil fruit that makes the **everyone**  afraid of Oyaji.”_

 

“I can’t wait to fight against your Oyaji.” Luffy grinned before the noise outside the room had caught half of his attention, “Talk about fighting, I actually fought against Marigold and Sandersonia!”

 

_“Marigold and Sandersonia? Wait, that’s the name of Boa Hancock’s sisters’ right? What trouble did you do to fight against them?” Ace’s voice sounded resigned over the Den Den Mushi._

Pouting, “I **DIDN’T** do anything! That’s the condition which I have to complete in order for us to train on Rusukaina Island!” Turning his attention back to the door again, the noises are getting louder and he’s certain that he heard Nami and Sanji’s voice.

 

_“If my memory serves me right, that island is located in the Calm Belt and within Hancock’s territory?”_

“Ya,” a small frown appeared on his face as the noises are getting louder, “Ace, I might have to call you back later. There’s som-“

The door slamming open had cut off Luffy’s sentence and the one responsible for the noises and slamming the door open is Rayleigh. “Are you talking to Ace?”

 

“Sorry Luffy, we aren’t strong enough to stop him from getting pass us.” Nami apologise as she and the rest of his nakama glared at Rayleigh, sporting small injuries on their body.

 

Hanging up his call without saying anything to his brother, Luffy could already imagine the alarm his oldest brother must be feeling. “Old man, what do you want?”

 

“I want to talk to Ace.”

 

“That’s not for you to decide, Ace will have the final say on whether he wants to talk to you or not.” Luffy answered.

 

“Even if I could threaten your nakama’s life and use it to force you to give me Ace’s number?”

 

“Then it meant that you don’t know us enough,” Sanji interrupted, taking a deep breath from his cigarette.

 

“We won’t just stand here and let you use our life to threaten our Captain.” Zoro ended the sentence for Sanji, using his thumb to slightly push up the hand guard of his katana.

 

The others didn’t just stand there and do nothing; they quickly got into their attack stance. They knew that they weren’t able to win this fight even if they are working together; their first spar against Rayleigh are still fresh in their mind, and there is a high chance where all of them will lose their life if they continued on.

 

However this man is **threatening**  someone they considered as one of their nakama, who is also their Captain’s oldest brother; even though Ace didn't join their crew. Luffy wouldn’t just let this man stomp over them and if their Captain goes down in this fight, all of them will do the same.

 

Sighing out at the stubbornness of the younglings, “ _Fine_ , I want you to ask Ace if he is willing to have a conversation with me and if he doesn’t want to talk to me, I won’t do anything about it.” That sentence made everyone let out a breath in relief, “However if Ace still doesn’t agree to have a conversation with me after the two years of training and after all of you had set sail towards the New World, I will go on a search for him. None of you will be able to change my mind about that so don’t bother trying.”

 

Luffy knew that Ace wouldn’t like to hear this sudden development and he is helpless here, the only thing he could do is to warn Ace about Rayleigh’s plan and let his older brother do all of the work. He wouldn’t be too worried about Rayleigh being able to find Ace because of Striker and ace’s devil fruit powers; he will be able to escape if Rayleigh did find him.

 

“Okay.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

The tension in the air is so thick that Thatch could cut it in half with the sword that he wield (a habit that he developed after he had been attacked at home, that he didn’t notice until Haruta pointed it out to him), bouncing his legs to cease the urge to pace around, he didn’t need to increase the tension and annoyed his already edgy siblings.

 

“Thatch,” Marco called out, laying one of his hands on Thatch’s shoulder, “Oyaji will be fine and stop bouncing your legs yoi.”

 

Giving Marco a weak smile, “Sorry buddy but I can’t help it. It’s either I bounce my leg or I pace in a circle, I decided on the lesser evil of the two.”

 

“You worry too much yoi.”

 

Rolling his eyes, “Speak for yourself, you have been flexing your muscles ever since Shanks’ ship is within sight.”

 

Shrugging, “Can’t help it, Red-hair is an expert at angering me yoi.”

 

Silently chuckling at what Marco had just said but it didn’t last long, “Do you know the reason behind Oyaji’s demand of wanting to meet with Shanks?”

 

“I think he wanted to hear a brief summary of the evidence that Shanks had found before bringing us in.” Marco answered easily.

 

“But _why_ would Oyaji do that?”

 

“Some of us will not take the news well, so I think Oyaji wanted to hear it first and figure out a way to calm us down before we do anything stupid yoi.”

 

Thatch know that some of his siblings are hot-headed when it comes to treachery within their crew, “That… sounds right.” He agreed quickly.

 

Before Marco could continue this conversation the door to their meeting room had opened, the signal that all of them have been waiting for, the signal to tell them that they could head into the meeting room. The uneasiness Marco have been feeling for the past few days have only increased the moment he see Oyaji’s expression, drawing in a deep breath he would need to calm himself down to help when Shanks finally deliver the news.

 

“Now that everyone is here, I’ll share what I’ve found.” Shanks started.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Sorry for hanging up on you just now. I have to take care of something first.” Luffy apologise.

 

_“What happened? I thought something bad had happened!”_

“Well… Rayleigh had found out that I am talking to you.”

 

_“Wait, what?! How does the Dark Knight know that the both of us are related to one another? I’ve only told Oyaji and a small handful of the Commanders about you!”_

“Ah, I was the one who had told him. Well I only told him that your name is Ace and somehow the old man managed to link the name to yours.” Luffy confessed, he couldn’t lie to save his life so might as well just tell his older brother about it.

 

_“… Luffy… I don’t even know what to say.”_

 

Winching at what his older brother had said, “I’m sorry but the old man did say that he doesn’t want to know what happened on your Oyaji’s ship and he doesn’t want to know your location!”

 

_“Then why would he barge in when I’m talking to you?”_

 

“He said that he wanted to talk to you but if you don’t want to, he will stop asking. However once our two years of training is up and you still refuse to talk to him, the old man will sail around to search for you.”

 

_“Do you have any idea why the Dark Knight wanted to talk to me?”_

 

“He just wanted to see how you’re doing and give you his Den Den Mushi number, that you could call him for help if you’re in any trouble.”

 

_“I see, I’ll think about it first.”_

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Aren’t these the paperwork that Marco thought he had misplaced in his room? Why do you have them?” Fossa asked, he remember these paperwork well because he had been there when his brother was searching for them in his room.

 

“I’ve found them among Laffitte’s belongings.”

 

“And how the hell did Laffitte; someone who isn’t a crew member, managed to get his hands on them?” Atoms demanded.

 

“Teach.” Thatch whispered, staring into Shanks’ eyes, “He’s the one who had stolen all of this.” It isn’t a question but a statement.

 

All eyes turned to Shanks, wanting to know whether it’s true or not.

 

Nodding his head, “That is true, Marshall. D. Teach stole all of that and passed it to Laffitte. With all of that information, he was planning to betray all of you.”

 

“What proof do you have to prove that?" Curiel asked, he couldn’t believe one of their sibling was planning to betray all of them.

 

“Are Laffitte’s words enough?” Shanks asked, “If Laffitte’s words are enough, I have him locked up on my ship. I can call Benn to bring him over here.”

 

Marco’s brain decided to stop focusing on the conversation once he heard Teach had planned to betray them. How could he even continue processing the conversation when his brain finally caught up to the fact that Teach who had been in this crew as long as Jozu wanted to betray them? And that wasn’t the only thing his brain had focused on, somehow Ace had found out about that and had helped them to get rid of the traitor without any of them knowing about it.

 

But **_why_** would Ace flee if he had helped to get rid of a traitor? Yes, Oyaji might be disappointed to know that the traitor had already been killed before he could give out the order but he wouldn’t punish Ace for it. And the main question, how the hell did Ace find out about Teach’s plan?

 

Maybe Ace had overheard something but didn’t have the proof to tell them? But Ace could have just told them what he had heard; they wouldn’t just dismiss those kinds of things without checking it out. They would have assigned watch on Teach when he is on Moby and stop Teach from betraying all of them.

 

“-co, Marco!” Izo called out, shaking his brother’s shoulder.

 

“Sorry yoi, what did I missed?” He asked, turning his attention to Izo and ignoring everyone who had been staring at him since God knows when.

 

“Oyaji is asking if you could head to Shanks’ ship and help Benn to bring Laffitte here.” Izo repeated.

 

“Ah, I’ll do that.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Garp-san, Sengoku-san is asking you to head to his office now.”

 

“Sen is calling me to his office? Do you know why?” Garp asked the newer batch of recruits that he hasn’t remembered their names yet.

 

“Sengoku-san didn’t tell me anything except to call you to his office.”

 

“Got it, I’ll head there right now.” Garp answered.

 

There are quite a few reasons why Sengoku would call him to his office, either he had done something wrong and Sengoku wanted to lecture him on his actions or Sengoku wanted to rant about those fools who were abusing their powers in the Marines. He hasn’t been doing anything stupid recently and he doesn’t mind listening to Sengoku rant about those idiots but he could think of another reason why Sengoku had called him to his office. He wanted to know if he had found any information about what happened to the Whitebeards.

 

Sadly the meeting he had with the Whitebeard, he wasn’t able to get much information except that Teach is actually stronger than what the Whitebeards had expected.

 

Knocking on the door, he didn’t wait for any answers and just barged in. “Sen, if you’re going to ask me about the Whitebeards, there’s nothing much which I could share. They have no idea what is going on.”

 

“Garp, sit down. That’s not what I want to talk about.” The seriousness in Sengoku’s tone had shocked Garp for a few seconds.

 

Whenever Sengoku uses that voice it meant that some serious thing is going on, “What do you want to talk about?” Garp asked, “Is it another war?”

 

“I have been given information about some of our members abusing their position and powers that led to some civilians’ death,” pushing the folder he held towards Garp, “the first page is their names and their profile. I want you to chase them down and bring them to me for their punishment.”

 

Flipping to the first page, Garp zoomed in to the paper however instead of the names of the Marines; it was a message from Sengoku. Scanning through the message Sengoku usually do this when he has sensitive information to share with him and that he doesn’t want anyone else to hear it.

_‘The Nobles and Celestial Dragons found out that your oldest grandson; Portgas. D. Ace is related to Portgas. D. Rouge. They are now hunting for him, believing that Ace have inherited Rouge’s powers and there are some who have hired bounty hunters to hunt him down. They would keep him for their own greed however if Ace didn’t have the same powers as Rouge, they will either kill him or keep him as their slaves. They have forbidden me to share this information with anyone else however if Ace is captured and brought in by any of the Marines, I don’t have a choice but to hand Ace over to them.’_

 

His breath hitched after he finishes reading through the message, he didn’t know what is worse. That one of **_his brat_** had caught the attention of both the Nobles and Celestial Dragons or that those disgusting human beings are interested in **_his brat_** ’s power even if they didn’t know if **_his brat_** has those powers.

 

If the Nobles and Celestial Dragons found out that **_his brat_** didn’t inherit the powers from Rouge, they would have turned him into a slave. The worse punishment for anyone especially **_his brat_** who viewed his freedom way more important than any treasure he could get his hands on.

 

“Did you receive them from a reliable source?” Garp demanded.

 

Nodding his head, “I trust this source with my life.” Sengoku added, wanting to let Garp know how serious this whole situation is.

 

“Got it, I’ll be taking his folder back to my office to look through their profile.” Garp waved the folder as he stood up to leave.

 

Barely holding back from showcasing a full blown panic attack in the middle of the hallway, he couldn’t let anyone else know about **_his brat_**. God knows what those power hungry fools and greedy bastards will rush out to search for **_his brat_** in order to get the position they desire or the cash prize for capturing **_his brat_**.

 

He has to warn **_his brat_** about this.

 

The ‘How’ is the main problem, ever since **_his brat’s_** disappearance no one was able to find any information on where **_his brat_** is hiding. Without know the location, he couldn’t just rush off on a blind search it will only waste his time, and he doesn’t know if **_his brat_** carries a Den Den Mushi with him or even uses the same number that he got when he visit the brat on Moby Dick, he will need to find another way to update Ace about this situation.

 

The only solution left is something that he doesn’t like to use as it would bring nothing but trouble to him however it’s the only way left.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

The handle of his bisento cracked under the pressure he applied on it, it would be bad if he destroy the handle as the material is hard to come by however he couldn’t help it. How could he keep a hold on his anger after hearing the bullshit that Laffitte is spilling?

 

It’s true that most of the bullshit was just a repeat of what Marshall. D. Teach had blabbered out to Laffitte when they were discussing their plan of ‘taking over the world’, all of his children are also affected and it’s only because of Marco’s level head that prevented anyone from killing the idiot now. The thoughts of endangering both his beloved ship and all of his children are what hold him back from letting his anger explode in the meeting room.

 

“Let’s bring this fool with us as we reveal the truth to the rest.” He ordered as soon as the light tapping of his weapon against the wooden floor gain everyone’s attention. The rest of his children would want him to do this, they have been patiently waiting outside of the meeting room for them, while no one will take the news well but they have the rights to know the truth.

 

Leading the group out of the meeting room to face his other children, Jozu and Marco quickly took up the position on either side of Laffitte, prepared and ready to drag the fool out if he suddenly regretted his choice and didn’t want to face the wrath of the Whitebeard crew.

 

As soon as the door opened, all of his children; who have made themselves comfortable on the ground as they wait, quickly stood up.

 

Taking in a deep breath, “My children thank you for your patient; we will now share the results with all of you.” Whitebeard started, With Haruta stepping forward, “Please take a good look and pass around what Haruta is distributing, those are the paperwork found among Laffitte’s belongings.”

 

It took a while before everyone could have a good look at the paperwork being passed around, “As all of you can see, those contain sensitive information about our crew and the only plausible reason as to why someone who we have never met could get their hands on it is because we have a mole and traitor among us.”

 

Screams of outrage exploded, questions of **_whom_** , **_how_** and **_why_** were all thrown at him.

 

Slamming his bisento against the floor to silence everyone, “We have evidence that Marshall. D. Teach was the mole.”

 

“Wait Oyaji, Teach have been with us for so long! _Why_ would he betray us!” one of his son shouted out, with the rest agreeing with that sentence.

 

Releasing a small wave of Haoshoku Haki that is weak enough that he wouldn’t knock out anyone, “All of you must have seen the prisoner that Benn and Marco had brought to the meeting room, his name is Laffitte, the man who Marshall. D. Teach had recruited for the plans he had for all of you.” Shanks shouted out.

 

“Brat I believed I have warned you about using Haoshoku Haki on my ship.” Whitebeard growled out softly.

 

“Sorry, sorry. But this is the fastest way to get all of them shut up and listen.” Shanks apologise but it doesn’t sound sincere.

 

Grumbling under his breath about stupid brats, “Laffitte will now share the plans that Teach had made with him, I will not tolerate any interruption and he will not repeat himself again.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

_“What do you want?”_

 

Rolling his eyes at the tone that his son had used, it’s not like he doesn’t understand why Dragon is reluctant to talk to him; it’s the Marines who are responsible for the death of his daughter-in-law rendering his grandchild motherless and that the Nobles or Celestial Dragons prevented the Marine from receiving his punishment.

 

He will **NEVER** get over the guilt however it’s because of that incident that he finally realise how corrupted and disgusting the Marine have become. He wanted to make a change; no matter how small it was, by training all of the recruits and making sure to beat the _original_ justice into their head.

 

“I want to talk to Sabo.” He demanded.

 

_“…I don’t know what you are talking about; I do not know a person named Sabo.”_

“Brat, don’t make me waste the time that I do not **have**.” Garp growled out, keeping his voice low enough that no one outside the door could hear this conversation, “I _NEED_ to talk to Sabo about his older brother.”

 

_“What makes you think Sabo will join my group when he dreamed of sailing as a pirate?”_

 

Deciding to give up on personally informing Sabo this news, “Do you remember Roger’s wife, Rouge and the powers that she have?”

 

Stunning his son into silence for a few minutes, _“Why are you talking about Rouge when she is supposed to be dead?”_

“Because this concerns their son, I don’t really know how they found out but the Nobles and Celestial Dragons have found out about Ace’s connection to them. To make matters worse, they are positive that Ace has inherited her powers, hiring bounty hunters to capture him.” Garp hissed, “I need Sabo to warn Ace about this and see if he could remember anyone who knows about Ace.”

 

_“Is this information reliable?”_ Dragon asked, his voice sounding breathless.

 

“Yes, Sengoku was the one who passed this to me and I trust him with my life. Now will you allow me to tell Sabo this information?!”

_“Sabo isn’t at the base now but I’ll inform him about it. Don’t do anything stupid, father. Do **NOT** search for Ace yourself, we’ll handle everything.”_

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Listening to the cheers that the Whitebeard crew let out at Laffitte’s death at the hands of Whitebeard, the corners of his mouth lifted up even at the fact that the man’s death is on his shoulder. He felt no remorse or guilt at it, if he had to choose between the Whitebeard crew’s destruction and the old man’s death or the death of a psychopathic coward’s desire of ruling the World in fear, he would always choose the latter’s death.

 

Thinking that this should be a good time to share the remaining information he had gathered, he headed to the old man, ignoring the sharp look the Commanders are shooting at him.

 

“With that out of the way, I have some more information to share with you.” That got Marco and Haruta’s attention.

 

“What else are you hiding from us yoi?” Marco grumbled out.

 

Waving his hand, “This information has nothing to do with all of you, so don’t get your panties in a twist.” Grinning at the First Division Commander, “Anyway, all of you know Donquixote Doflamingo?”

 

Huffing at the stupid question, “Of course we know who the fuck he is yoi.”

 

“That’s good, because I found evidence that the Vice Admiral named Vergo is Donquixote Doflamingo’s mole.” Shanks answered, waving the bundle of paper he had kept a hold on.

 

“What? If Vergo is a mole why didn’t the Marines find out about it?”

 

Shrugging his shoulders, “I don’t know. Maybe Donquixote Doflamingo might have a hand in it? But we will need to inform Garp about it, and since he is friendlier to you, I believe it would be best that you pass this to him.”

 

“And why couldn’t you do it?” Whitebeard ask.

 

A mischievous smile appeared on his face, “Well, he doesn’t really like me after I met his grandchild.”

 

It took a while before Marco realise the person Shanks is talking about, “You are the one who had saved Ace’s younger brother yoi?!”

 

“Eh? Ace didn’t say anything about it?”

 

Shaking his head, “He did speak about that incident but he never mentioned your name yoi.”

 

“Ace must have wanted to keep my name from all of you. Anyways, pass this to Garp as soon as possible!” Shanks said as he stuffed the paper into Marco’s empty hands.

 

“Did you manage to find anything about Ace?” Whitebeard asked.

 

“Nothing at all, even Laffitte didn’t know how did Ace found out about the plan when Marshall. D. Teach had only told him.” Shanks answered,

 

“We need to figure out how Ace found out Teach’s plan.” Whitebeard demanded.

 

“But does that really matters? I mean we _finally_ know that Teach had been planning to kill Thatch that night, what Ace have to do to save all of us. So shouldn’t we be trying to find out where Ace is hiding to get him back instead of trying to figure out _how_ he knows about Teach’s plan yoi?”

 

Zoning out from the conversation, he suddenly remember one of the conversation he had with his dead Captain a long time ago.

_“I’ll only tell the both of you about this, without my permission you can’t repeat anything you hear now to anyone else okay?”_

_It’s only after Shanks and Buggy nodded their head did Roger start on his explanation._

_“My lovely wife have a powerful set of powers, she could see a short glimpse of the future.” At the shocked expression on the two cabin boys he accepted, “Why do you think we would always get into trouble with the Celestial Dragons or the Nobles? Why would I suddenly demand for the change of course and head back to the village we just left? It’s all because my wife saw what might happen to those people and village and have begged me to help them. Plus I could never say ‘no’ to her.” And this conversation ended with Roger’s loud laughter._

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO excited to write this chapter!!! I was so excited that I literally started writing on the 20th after a good nice rest. XD
> 
> I had wanted to write Luffy's fight with Sandersonia and Marigold however I wouldn't be able to fit the important points in unless I leave a cliffhanger and I didn't want to do that. I've been delaying this for way too long. XD
> 
> I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter!! Please do leave feedbacks or comments! =D


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this chapter took this long (I'm not dead yet, just half dead), I was debating on how I should write this chapter and it took a while for me to get it to my liking, and I got sick (my luck sucks).
> 
> Warnings: Grammar mistakes, the last portion was written while I am sick as if hell had descent on me so please ignore any weirdness.

 

 

 

 

 

“Sabo, keep your anger in check! You’re scaring everyone!” Koala hissed, smacking her friend’s head.

 

 “How can I keep my anger in check when my **brother** is in **danger** and to make things worse, he **doesn’t know** about it?!” Sabo roared back.

 

“Now now, the both of you shouldn’t be fighting now.” Hack demanded, trying to mediate this argument before a fist-fight happen.

 

“Fine,” Koala huffed out, “If you’re that worried about your brother, why don’t you just go and visit him?”

 

Gaping for words, Sabo couldn’t believe that Koala had given him the permission to skip out on work and let him do whatever he wanted.

 

“Just leave everything to the both of us this wouldn’t be the first time that we will have to handle everything.”

 

Smiling at his two friends, “Thanks guys, I will be taking the smaller boat so there isn’t any need to send me there. I’ll contact all of you after I check on my brother!”

 

“I know you didn’t want anyone of us to know where your brother is hiding but at least send you half way to the island, if not you’ll have to paddle all the way as the boat doesn’t have any engine!” Hack shouted, reaching out to stop Sabo from running off.

 

“Don’t worry! The island is near here, all I have to do is to just paddle for one and a half day and I’ll reach there. Oh, I’ll be taking some supplies from our pantry!” He added as an after-thought, dancing away from Hack’s hands.

 

“Hack, don’t worry about that idiot. If he says that he can do it, he will do it.” Koala waved off Hack’s concern as she headed below deck.

 

Knowing that his brother would worry if he suddenly went to meet him without any warnings, but before he make the call, he should inform their youngest. The brat would throw a huge tantrum if he found out this was kept away from him.

 

Pulling out his baby Den Den Mushi, he quickly dialled the number that they baby brother uses.

 

Picking up the ringing Den Den Mushi, “Thousand Sunny Sanji Black is speaking.”

_“Sanji, this is Sabo. Sorry for the sudden call but I need to speak with Luffy.”_

“Okay, hold on for a moment, I’ll send Chopper to get him.” Sanji answered as he shot Chopper (who had roped into doing the dishes with Sanji) a glance. All Chopper did was nod his head before dashing off to find their Captain, “Is this a private talk because I still have some dishes to do and food preparations for tomorrow morning.”

 

_“You should stay and try to calm Luffy down while I explain the situation to him.”_

 

That doesn’t sound good, “Something happened.”

 

_“Ah, Ace is in trouble and I need you to calm Luffy down before he does stupid things.”_

 

Sanji’s posture stiffens when he heard that Ace is in trouble, “Got it, can Nami and Zoro attend this? They will be able to calm Luffy down easier than I could.”

 

_“It’s not a problem. I would have wanted all of you to gather to listen to the news but with Rayleigh training all of you, I don’t think it would be a good idea.”_

 

Nodding his head, “He had already tried to force his way in when Luffy was talking to Ace, we tried to stop him but we are still too weak. Oh, I don’t know if Ace or Luffy had updated you yet but for the next two years Rayleigh will be waiting for Ace’s permission to have a conversation with him but as soon as the two years are over, he will set out to search for Ace.”

 

_“Does Ace know about this?”_

 

“Ya, Luffy told him as soon as possible.”

 

_Sighing in relief, “That’s good. Ace doesn’t like it when we keep that kind of information from him.”_

 

“Give me a few minutes, I need to call Zoro and ask him to bring Nami here.” Peeking out of the circular window in the dining room, Zoro always nap at the stern, “Marimo, go grab Nami-san and come here. Sabo have something important to tell us.”

 

The only answer he received from the Marimo is a grunt, it took a while but he could hear the sound of footsteps heading to the dining room.

 

“Oi Sanji, why did you call me here? Is it because there are left over meat?” Luffy asked as soon as he got one of his feet through the dining room door.

 

Smacking her Captain, “Didn’t you listen to anything when Chopper went to get you?! Sabo have some information for us you idiot!” Nami hissed out.

 

“Sabo,” Luffy cheered as he dashed towards the Den Den Mushi, “what have you got for us?”

 

_“Nothing good, you guys might want to have a seat and make yourself comfortable this will take quite a while to explain.”_

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

_“Brat, why are you calling me?”_

 

“Ray-san, it’s been a while! How are you doing?” Shanks asked a bright grin on his face.

 

_“… What kind of trouble did you get into?”_

 

Pouting at the Den Den Mushi, “How rude, I’ll let you know that I haven’t gotten into any trouble in a **_very long time_**.”

 

_“And that is all because of your First Mate.”_

His pout intensify, why does everyone thinks that he always get into trouble? He isn’t anything like Luffy! “Anyway, I have an important question to ask you. Are you in private?”

 

Hearing the change in his voice, Rayleigh had also gotten serious, _“I’m alone. Do you have any information that you wanted to share with me?”_

 

Nodding his head, “Ah, I’ve gotten the evidence and had already shared with the old man. It’s confirmed that Marshall. D. Teach was planning to betray the Whitebeard and that’s not the only thing that I’ve found out.”

 

_“…That doesn’t sound good.”_

 

“Ah, we’ve found out that Vergo the Vice Admiral is actually a mole working for Donquixote Doflamingo. He might have been sneaking Marines’ information out, it would be best if we inform Garp and Sengoku about it so that they could do something about the mole.”

 

_“I’ll tell Shakky to see if she could contact Garp or Sengoku.”_

 

“If Garp wants the evidence, tell him to get it from the old man. I’ve left everything with him, and there’s another thing which I want to ask you.”

 

_“What is it?”_

“I remembered when Captain talked about Rouge,” pausing for a while, “do you think that there is a slight possible chance that Ace would have inherited her powers?”

_“… I can’t be too sure about that. From what I heard from Rouge, she was the only one in her family to have that power and unless I have a talk with him, I wouldn’t know if Ace has inherited that power.”_

Sighing out, “And we don’t know where he is and how to contact him.”

 

_“Ah… I do know of a way to contact him.”_

“ **WHAT?!** ”

_“I am training Luffy and his crew for the next two years and I have just found out that they have been in contact with Ace through the Den Den Mushi for quite a while.”_

“Then why didn’t you talk to Ace?!” Shanks demanded.

_“They wouldn’t allow me unless Ace gives them the permission and I’ve already got into trouble for threatening them. But I did ask Luffy to pass on the message that I wanted to speak with Ace, all I have to do now is to just wait for Ace’s agreement.”_

He couldn’t stop himself from deflating from that news, “Those **_brats_** , why are they making things difficult for us?”

 

_Chuckling at that sentence, “They only learn from the best.”_

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Having explained whatever Dragon learnt from Garp to his baby brother and his nakamas, “We will need to form a plan.”

_“But what **could** we do? I doubt Rayleigh will let us leave this island without giving him a proper explanation. And if we told him the truth, he will force us to bring him along.” Nami asked, “There’s basically nothing which we could do here.”_

“You guys are not leaving the island.” Sabo pointed out.

_“… What do you mean Sabo? We can’t do a single thing if we do not leave the island.”_

 

A mischievous smirk appeared on his face, “I don’t know how the Celestial Dragons and Nobles found out about Ace’s abilities but I do know for a fact that the only people who knew about it are Garp, Luffy and me. So the only way they found out about it is that someone had spread this **rumour**.”  Pausing for a while, Sabo wanted to know if anyone else have gotten what he is trying to tell them.

 

 _“Ah, I get what you’re trying to say. If we asked the people from our hometown to help us by spreading the rumour regarding Ace’s abilities are actually false, it will reach those Celestial Dragons’ and Nobles’ ears.”_ Sanji confirmed.

 

“That is correct.” Sabo didn’t need to be there to know that the others have the same smirk on their faces.

 

 _“Sabo, leave this to us. Everyone will be willing to help us out.”_  Nami added, thinking of the village and the civilians living there who they could ask for their help.

 

“Let me talk to the people living in Foosha village first, Ace had set sail and started his pirating career there. No one except the villagers we know knew that Ace grew up on that island, it’s logical that the rumours started there. Give me around two weeks before you guys started calling people up, and think about the route you guys have taken, it would be best to let the rumours work its way down to the Grand Line and New World. Make sure that civilians talk to the merchants that docked there, those merchants would help speed up the spreading of it.”

_“Wouldn’t the civilians be in trouble if the Marines tracked those rumours to the start?”_ Zoro questioned.

 

“As long as they say that they heard the rumours from a visiting merchant and couldn’t remember the name they wouldn’t be in too much trouble.” Sabo pointed out.

 

_“That’s a good plan, I’ll make sure to remind all of them that. Will you be notifying us when we should start the spreading of the rumours?”_

 

“I will, if I took longer than two weeks to contact you guys, don’t panic. I need to make sure that there is actually a merchant who will be visiting and when they leave the island.” Sabo warned them before they ended their conversation.

 

Leaning against the side of the small boat, the first portion of his plan is done, now it’s time to move onto the middle portion which shouldn’t take too long before the final part which is also the one that he isn’t looking forward to.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Oyaji are we still gonna wait for Straw Hat to come here?” Marco asked; his siblings had forced him to voice this question as they had been staying here for nearly a month.

 

“I would like to stay here for a few more days before we head off. There are a few questions which I would like to ask Straw Hat Luffy.”

 

“Oyaji, we’ve been here for almost a month yoi. If the Straw Hats didn’t appear within the last few weeks I doubt that they will appear anytime soon.”

 

Smiling at his son, he understood Marco’s concern about their other territories and that Kaido or Big Mom would attack them while they are in Fishman Island, “We’ll stay here until a month is up, if the Straw Hats do not appear by then, we’ll head back to the New World and wait for them to appear there.”

 

Marco couldn’t help but sigh at this point. Once Oyaji made up his mind, there’s nothing else which he could do right now except to follow his orders and it seems like his siblings know it too as they just nodded their head when he glance in their direction.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Staring down at the baby Den Den Mushi, he had just finished explaining the situation to Ace and it sounded like he isn’t taking everything in too well. But that’s fine, he is already on his way to see him, all he has to do is to just paddle for another few more hours and he will reach, might as well worry about his brother later on. He has to call Makino to tell her about his plan.

 

Dadan might be a better choice since she knew about Ace’s heritage and she was their caretaker; no matter how much of a bad job she did, until Makino took over. However the female bandit leader and her gang doesn’t head into Foosha Village too much due to the bounties on their heads and the fact that they live in the forest meant that they do not know much about the merchants that deliver their shipments to Dawn Island much.

 

Makino would be the better candidate for the plan he had in his mind.

 

Not only does Makino owns a bar in Foosha Village where people would gather for the bitter goodness they call beer after a long hard day at work, she also know the villagers well enough to get them to help her and she have a rough idea of when each merchants will dock at Foosha Village to deliver supplies.

 

_“Hello, Makino speaking.”_

 

“It’s been a while, Makino-san.”

 

_“Sabo, it’s been a while since the last call! Have you contacted Ace?”_

 

“Don’t worry too much about Ace, Makino. He’s an adult now and knows how to take care of his own ass.” The hearty laughter from Makino slightly warmed his heart, they aren’t blood-related to one another but that didn’t stop him from accepting and viewing Makino as the older sister he will never get back at ‘home’. “By the way, I need your help with something.”

 

_“Sure, how can I help you?”_

 

Smiling at the answer he received from Makino, that’ what he liked about her, even if she didn’t have a single clue on what she is supposed to do, Makino will always agree to help his brothers or him if they ever ask, “Gramps told Dragon-san that the Nobles and Celestial Dragons have found out about Ace’s heritage and they are hiring bounty hunters to capture him alive.” Ignoring the horrified gasp from Makino, he continued on, “I would need you to tell the merchants that dock at Foosha Village that that rumour is a lie.”

 

_“That’s not a problem. Should I ask the others to help me and should I contact my friends in other village to help spread this?”_

“As long as they want to and that they could lie, that shouldn’t be a problem. As for your other friends in other villages, it’s better to wait for at least two weeks before telling them about it and only those who lives in West Blue.”

 

_“Can I ask why?”_

“The only ones who knew about Ace’s heritage are Gramps, Dadan, the other bandits, Luffy and I. It’s either someone overheard that information when he is telling one of us or someone found out about it, since I am unsure about it I would rather the rumours start from the sea that Ace first started as a pirate than letting everyone start talking about this rumours at once, the bounty hunters, Nobles or the Celestial Dragons would figure it out.”

 

_“I understand your point Sabo-kun, don’t worry about it and leave this to me!”_

 

“Thank you Makino, please also keep an eye out for Outlook III, tell Dadan and the others to keep an eye on him? If I am correct, he might be the person who had started this whole thing. And also if you think it’s getting dangerous, please stop and keep yourself safe.”

 

It’s strange to see the face of the Den Den Mushi trying to mimic the gentle smile that Makino usually gives them, _“Don’t worry about us, we know how to take care of ourselves. Now let me get to work and start thinking about how I should start on your plans.”_

“Take care Makino, I’ll call you again in two weeks’ time.” Cutting the call off here, now all is left is to tell his older brother what the hell is going on.

 

Something that will do nothing but make him paranoia and maybe suffer from some panic attacks (he remembers a small handful of times when he had witnessed his brother having panic attacks but doesn’t really know whether he had seen a doctor for it)? He would definitely have nightmares about what might happen if he is found, at least he will be there to help through that.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Blanking out as soon as he heard what his second youngest brother had just told him, it’s like his worst nightmares and fears are appearing one after another.

 

The first one would be the vision of seeing someone he accepted as his sibling betray his family, the second one is that he would have been his Oyaji’s downfall if he was caught by Teach, the third is that he had to leave the place that had created so much good memories; including the love of his life, that he had called ‘home’ because of the choice where he might bring danger to them, the fourth is that his baby brother and his crew would have been in a lot of danger if he hadn’t stop them from heading to Sabaody Archipelago.

 

And now, this secret that he had guarded with his life, only letting a small handful of people; whom he trust with his life, knew about (not even Oyaji or Marco know about it) is being passed from one Celestial Dragon to another.

 

Shivering at the images that assaulted his mind of him being chained up, with a **_dog collar_** around his neck, being pulled around during a party and being show cased to the other Nobles or Celestial Dragons like he’s an **item**. Forced to see the disgusting future of those **_disgusting pigs_** and that is if he stayed with the Celestial Dragons or Nobles long enough and not taken by any pirates who wanted his powers for themselves or his family rushing to rescue him and forcing him to explain whatever the fuck happened to Thatch and Teach.

 

Ace couldn’t help but think about his mother. Did she have to go through all of these troublesome situations when she was alive? Maybe she had went through even more troubles since Gramps told him (and managed to find out) that someone related to his mom had been the one responsible for the leak, her family bond and trust with her family must have been broken because of this. She couldn’t afford to tell anyone where she went to hide and couldn’t afford to tell anyone of them without the fears of it being leaked again.

 

Shivering at that thought, it’s a really good thing that the Celestial Dragons and Nobles are greedy bastards and have decided to keep this information among them.

 

It wouldn’t do him any good if his family members heard about it. They would roam all over in search for him, either to save him from the grave danger he is facing or they want to get their hands on him first for killing Teach. It will not end well for him if **anyone** gets their hands on him.

 

He will need to stop Luffy and his nakamas from coming here to meet him for the next few months, it wouldn’t be good if someone was actually stalking them and they lead those people to this island. And yes, he is talking about his family. Without a doubt Oyaji or Marco would have ordered people to stalk his baby brother’s crew and see if his baby brother would lead them to where he is hiding.

 

He couldn’t even be angry at them since it’s his fault for bragging about Luffy when his bounty first appears.

 

Being that deep in thoughts, Ace didn’t notice the ship that is sailing in from the North straight for the island that he decided to set down his roots for the rest of his remaining life.

 

If that ship belonged to a merchant it would have been easy for Ace and his devil fruit to deal with, actually he might not even need his devil fruit. With just the tattoo on his back that shows he belong to the Strongest Man in the World would have been enough to scare anyone away.

 

However that ship doesn’t belong to a merchant, not with the uniquely designed skull flag flying on one of the mesh. While most pirate would have seconds thoughts about disturbing a crew member of the Strongest Man in the World, but there are some fools out there who truly believe they are strong enough to stand head to head with Whitebeard and they wouldn’t even think twice about fighting against a **single** member.

 

What Ace didn’t know yet is that the ship belonged to a pirate that he had met a long time ago, and that they were searching for him and here because they wanted his powers for themselves. The Pirate Captain wanted **revenge** for the deeds which **_those brats_** had done to him.

 

They had spent years gathering information about the youngest and managed to stalk him until they lost sight of the ship within an intense fog. While the other members had been begging their Captain to just give up on his search and revenge, he rejected all of his underling’s begging and comb through the area where they had lost the ship.

 

The Pirate Captain didn’t want the boost of fame he will have if he took down one of Whitebeard’s member, he didn’t want to be known to be strong to take down Fire-Fist Ace, and he didn’t want the amount of his bounty to be increased.

 

He didn’t **_WANT_** or **_NEED_** that.

 

All he wanted is to let all of **_those brats_** to suffer through the same humiliation and disgrace he had to go through so many years ago and if he could, he wanted to engrave those feelings of his into their body.

 

Yes. Scars on each of **_those brats’_** body sounded spectacular.

 

That way all of them could see those ornaments every single day, and remember whatever hell he had made all of them go through.

 

Like what he had to go through. Every single damned time when he looks into the mirror, he will be able to see the burn marks all over his body and face. It **reminded** him of what happened **_on that day_**.

 

For him to be able to engrave scars mentally and physically, he will need to find the youngest brat. He **_knew_** just how overprotective the two older brats are over their youngest; he had witness and experienced it himself, that’s why he is targeting the youngest. It will send the other two brats running his way when they find out what had happened to their youngest.

 

And it is too bad for the two other **_brats_** if they believed they could take him down on their own.

 

With the information they gathered from the newspaper and the words from people who have seen **_those brats_** , two out of the three have eaten a devil fruit (the last one was unknown) which he could easily defeat them as soon as **_the brats_** touched sea stone or accidentally fall into the ocean, the last **_brat_** that he couldn’t found any information would have to jump into the ocean to save the one that have fallen in, leaving one **_brat_** to his mercy.

 

Oh, how his fingers **_ITCH_** to wrap themselves around the throat of **_those brats_**. To feel their muscles spam under his palm, their fears reflecting in their eyes, the tears that they might shed and of course the way how they believe they could push him off with just their strength.  

 

He can’t wait to achieve his dreams.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that all of you like this chapter, I haven't really planned what is going to happen next so it'll take me a while to get the next chapter up. 
> 
> Thank you for reading please do leave a feedback or comments! =D


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so awesomely LATE. 
> 
> I'm so sorry. m(_ _)m
> 
> But hey, this chapter is a little over 7K words! 
> 
> Warnings: This isn't beta-ed. Now that I think about it, I should have ask if anyone wanted to be my beta. But it's slightly late right now. XD

 

 

 

 

 

His life could be summed up by two words, unfortunate and chaotic.

 

Unfortunate that he is the reason why his mother had died shortly after his birth and that he is related to the most hated man in the world; the Pirate King, while only a small handful of people knew about this secret and all of them have sworn to help him with his secret with their life but that doesn’t change the fact that he will be hunted down like an animal and executed if the Marine and World Government found out about it.

 

Unfortunate that the news about him being the son of the Pirate King had prompted him to ask for more information about his **_‘father’_** from the wrong and only person who knew about this fact at that time, leading to Gramps giving him books to read about the deeds of the Pirate King; biased books that were written by people who have never met the Pirate King before and receive the fake information from the Marines, sending him into a downward spiral of self-hatred and self-destruction. His self-destruction had gotten so bad that he had gone from destroying anything that has to do with the Pirate King and trashing his bedroom to slicing his wrist. It took Gramps a while to realise just what he had been doing to his body, in the end it left the Marine Hero with no other choice but to send him off to Dadan so that the bandit leader could keep an eye on him while Gramps is away for work.

 

Unfortunate that he had inherited his mother’s future-reading powers that had added additional danger to his existence, Gramps had told him what other people did and what his mother had to face when her powers were leaked out. Forcing him to swear that he will never tell a single soul about that power unless he met people he could trust with his life. Unfortunate that he didn’t know how to control those powers that lead to him wearing clothes and gloves that will cover as much of his skin as possible so that he doesn’t accidentally activate the powers his mother left him, unfortunate that he couldn’t even use his mother’s last name when he introduce himself to someone else.

 

Unfortunate that no one believe that he should live just because he is related to the Pirate King, unfortunate that he had to live in constant fear that people will find out about his relation or those few people who knew about his secrets will betray him by leaking it out to the Marines.

 

Chaotic for being shove from living with just Gramps who is usually away from the house due to his work and having a care-taker checking up on him for a few hours each day into a house where will have to live with three unknown person and didn’t have a place to hide when he needed a place to be alone.

 

Total chaos when Luffy was added into the already cramp house when Gramps dumped the youngest onto Dadan’s care, where Sabo and he had to increase the amount of food load they had to hunt for each meal they bring back to the bandit’s house, total chaos when Luffy decided to follow them all around and got into all kinds of trouble even when he isn’t doing anything dangerous, leaving it to both Sabo and him to help their youngest out, total chaos when the trouble that surrounds and follows Luffy had decided to add both Sabo and him into the mixture.

 

Chaotic when the fight with BlueJam resulted in the burning of the forest that surrounds and hides Dadan’s house from view, chaotic when Sabo had been picked up by one of BlueJam’s underlings and dumped into the flames to be burn alive. Chaotic when Luffy had seen the extant of Sabo’s injuries by sneaking pass everyone and peeked into the sterile room that Sabo uses to heal from those injuries causing the boy to have continuous nightmares every night for almost two months.

 

Chaotic when Sabo and he set sail as a pirate, worrying their hairs off about the trouble that their baby brother would get into back at Foosha Village, chaotic when he first received the invitation to be a Shichibukai and he rejected that offer, chaotic when his hand-picked crew had to do everything they could so that he doesn’t meet Gramps and none of them know the reason why.

 

Unfortunate that he had let his powers and the fact that it took him a year to bring his crew into the New World get into his head and making him demand his crew to search for Jinbe so that he could have a battle with the Shichibukai. Chaotic when Whitebeard suddenly appears in front of him minutes after the battle against Jinbe is done and won, unfortunate that he had lost the battle against Whitebeard without even landing a single hit on the man, chaotic when he woke up and found himself on the ship of the Strongest Man in the World, and that the man wanted him to join the crew.

 

That changes when he **_finally_** accepted Whitebeard’s offer of joining his crew and become one of Whitebeard’s newest son.

 

He finally learnt and felt the love of a father, what it means to be with people who accepted him no matter whose blood he has running through his veins, know how it feels like to leave all of those worries of being the oldest brother or being a captain behind and just let people treat him like the youngest among them and other people who are there to take care of him.

 

He even found the love of his life, that everyone gives their blessing even when he is in love with the same sex, that he could **_stay_** beside the love of his life. How many pirates could continue their careers while having the love of their life by their side?

 

Of course whatever God that is out there decided that he had enough joy in his life and decided to throw a curve ball at him by letting him witness what would have happened to his family in the next few months. The timing was so convince that he believes that whatever God that had been looking after the Whitebeards had **_wanted_** him to know what will be happening so that he could do something to prevent that from happening.

 

And that’s what he did.

 

He had managed to change the future for his family and his father, making sure that his attacks are fatal so that the man will never live through another day and cause them another distress situation again. His self-exile might have been a little bit over the top but he had never been clever; Sabo is the cleverest one among them, but the powers had told him that he **_is_** the **_cause_** of their father’s **_downfall_**.

 

He had to make sure that his existence will **_never_** threaten his family **_ever again_** and the only way to do that is to exile him and move far away from them to make sure that they wouldn’t be involved in the trouble that he attracts. That’s why he had made the choice to live the remaining years of his life on an isolated island where he couldn’t really get into any trouble with anyone else as not a single log pose could locate the island due to the lack of magnetic waves on the island.

 

However the sea stone chain wrapped around his body and one sea stone bullet in his body had proved that he could get out of any trouble by living on an isolated island wrong.

 

His Kenbunshoku Haki didn’t even warn him of the other presence on the island, it might have been because his Kenbunshoku Haki isn’t his strongest point –Marco and Izo had given up on strengthening his Kenbunshoku Haki after two years of intense training and it did nothing- but he should have been able to at least hear the noises people make when they were moving through the forest. Not only did he **NOT** hear anything but with the sea stone chain sapping all of his inhumane strength, there’s nothing which he could do to protect himself, even if he somehow managed to get out of the chain, the bullet would make him useless unless he dug it out.

 

He doesn’t remember those people who had attacked him and he doesn’t believe that they are people whom he had met and defeat while he is still the Captain of the Spades crew. With the call that he received from Sabo mere hours ago, he could believe that those people who attacked him are the ones that the Nobles or Celestial Dragons hired to capture him for his powers.

 

“So we meet again, you little **_bastard_**.”

 

He could faintly remember hearing the voice before however the sea stone chain and bullet is messing with his body that he just couldn’t remember where he had heard that voice before.

 

“You couldn’t remember me? How about all of these injuries? You should be able to remember something.”

 

His whole body freezes when the man appears in front of his vision. With a bald head and his face disfigured from the burn marks, it’s a miracle that the man standing in front of him retained his vision; it didn’t take him too long to remember the name of the person standing in front of him.

 

Fighting against the sea stone items that are sapping all of his energy, “…BlueJam…” he manages to croak out.

 

The smirk on BlueJam’s face is filled with nothing but evil thoughts, “So you finally remember and I can’t blame you since I look totally different than the last time we met in the forest.” The smirk widens, pulling the scars on his face making BlueJam look more like a monster that haunts dreams instead of a human, “And now, I finally have the chance to return back the favour.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

His eyes narrowed at the pirate ship that is heading to the island that his older brother is determined to stay on for the rest of his life and he had no doubt that he ship belonged to a pirate due to the red-skull figurehead, being a member of the Revolutionary Army and his position meant that had to remember the characteristics of all the ships used by every single pirate and even the Jolly Roger they used however the red-skull figurehead doesn’t sit well with him.

 

He remembers something about this ship before, but **_where_** had he seen it?

 

But that doesn’t bother him right now as it will come on later, the most important thing to him is to make sure his brother is safe and have taken care of the problem on his own. Keeping his small boat out of sight till he got to another docking area, he quickly cut through the forest to where Ace had built his house. If his brother didn’t notice the pirate ship, he will need to notify him about it and come up with a plan to capture them before they could run off and leak the news that Ace is staying on this island.

 

It wasn’t hard for him to keep the noise down as he track through the jungle; his childhood was spent in the forest and the training that they had while hunting for their food is enough to engrave the lesson into his mind, what he wasn’t expecting is the sight of his brother being chained up, surrounded by unknown people. And he knew that the chains are made from sea stones as Ace have inhumane strength and have witness his brother tears through metals with no problems at all.

 

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t kill you. After all there’s someone who had paid me to bring you back alive.”

 

Soundlessly inhaling in a deep breath, he recognises the voice; it belonged to the man whom his father had hired to forcefully bring him back to that disgusting family that he had ran away from and also to kill his brothers, he would **never** forget that voice since that man and his underlings are the ones responsible for the burn marks that covers half of his face and stretched till his hip. And while he didn’t mind the fact that half of his face is covered with burn scars (that will forever be there) and the pain he had to endure when the wound is still healing and that he still feels pain whenever it rains, but what he couldn’t stand is the fact that this man is still coming after his brothers.

 

There’s no doubt in Sabo’s mind that the one who had hired BlueJam to capture Ace is that man who is his biological father, since that man is a Noble, he must have heard the rumours about Ace’s power and wanted that power for himself.

 

Even if he had ran away from home a long time ago and had nothing to do with that family for years but because of the blood that is flowing through his body has gotten his brothers into trouble once again. Plus he wasn’t expecting anyone to find out the location of Ace’s hideout this fast; the information Garp gave him stated that the rumours had only started a week ago, therefore unless BlueJam **_knew_** about Ace’s power since the last time they met and had been hunting Ace down, there’s no way where the man could have found out about this location.

 

That thought send a chill down Sabo’s spine, because the only way BlueJam could have found out about Ace’s power is either he or someone else had heard about it when Ace was revealing it to both Luffy and he (which is impossible since they were in the forest and Ace had made sure no one else was near them when he finally revealed it) or the small handful of people who knew about that information had leaked it out.

 

The thought of someone who had been **trusted** with that information had been the **_LEAK_** was what angered him. It’s pretty easy to tell that Ace doesn’t trust people that easily –it took Ace close to almost three years before he revealed about the powers he had inherited from his mother to Luffy and him- looks like he will need to do some digging and beating the crap out of someone after he got his older brother out of this situation that his blood had caused.

 

At least this will be a good time to use the new power that he hasn’t shown to the world yet. The power that his older brother had given to him and his friends in the Revolutionary Army and their leader; Dragon-san, had trained him to control over that dangerous power. (He hadn’t known how terrifying the devil fruit that he had been holding was until one of his friend who had been spending his entire life on researching about devil fruit told him about the Yami Yami no mi.)

 

It’s a good thing that Dragon-san had insisted him to train during his spare time till he has almost full control over the devil fruit power, if he didn’t have that much control he would have to expose himself, losing the elements of surprise and would lead to BlueJam or one of his underlings to use his older brother as a hostage. While whatever he is going to do will physically exhaust him; causing him to be bed-ridden for a few days, but it would give him the time to take off the chains so that his older brother could protect himself while they are fighting against BlueJam.

 

Taking in a deep breath Sabo let the cold darkness of the devil fruit that he had been trusted with to leak out of his physical body, trapping all of those men whom have nothing but ill-intended deeds to them. As soon as his darkness covered all of the unwelcomed pirates, he absorbed everything covered in the darkness back into this body. Holding them there while they experience for the first time how terrifying the darkness actually is, the numbness that spreads from their toes to the rest of their body as they slowly lose all control over their body, unable to see anything while they mind questioned themselves about what the hell had just happened to them.

 

Rushing towards his older brother’s limp body, thank God Ivankov had the foresight to prepare gloves that would block out the effects of sea stone have on those who wears it before he went into Impel Down awaiting Dragon-san’s orders, allowing him to be able to get rid of the sea stone chains off his brother without any problem.

 

“Did you find out how BlueJam found this place?” Sabo asked as he quickly crushed the chains and quickly pull them off his brother since he have experienced of sea stones on him.

 

“Din’ say ‘nything.” Ace slurred as Sabo helped his older brother to sit up after removing all of the chains.

 

Snapping his eyes to Ace’s face, Sabo could see the lethargic written all over his older brother’s face and he didn’t realise what is wrong until the hand he had on Ace’s back had touched a wet spot there. Taking a quick peek at the back that he is holding, Sabo finally noticed the bullet wound, “You were **_shot_**?!” he nearly shriek out.

 

Ace could only sluggishly nod his head, “’Surprise ‘ttack.”

 

Hissing out curses under his breath, he didn’t have the equipments to take out

 

Hissing out curses under his breath, he didn’t have the training or the equipments to take out the bullet. As he is still debating on whether he should call for help from Koala and Hack (he knows that the two of them should still be around in this area), Ace had made up his mind for him.

 

“Use da ‘agger”

 

Looking down at the dagger that is always on Ace’s hip, the gift that Makino had gave him when they were departing from Foosha Village, the gift that Ace would have never use as it is a memento. For Ace to give him the permission to use that dagger says a lot about how his older brother felt about his situation, “Okay, I’m going to lay you on your back so that I could take the bullet out as much as I could.”

 

He is slow when he tried his best to take out the bullet, the fear of damaging his brother’s muscles when he had to make the wound larger to take the bullet out, the fear of shattering the fragile sea stone bullet when he make the first cut which will make it harder for him to remove all of the fragments of the bullet, the fear that his older brother might suffer from an infection after this surgery.

 

Ripping out his frilled cravat to soak up all of the blood spilled during the procedure, he had to dig through the bag that he had packed and brought with him for the bandages to wrap it up. “Can you sit up so that I could wrap the bandages around you?” Sabo asked as both of his hands are full with things.

 

“No problem.” Ace sobered up as soon as the sea stone bullet is out of his body.

 

Sabo quickly bandaged the wound up, leaving his cravat to soak up the still leaking wound, “Keep it like this for the next few hours and I’ll bandage it up after we deal with BlueJam and his underlings.”

 

“What are we going to do with them?” Ace asked, “Actually where are they right now?”

 

“I absorbed them in with the Yami Yami no Mi, I could let them out one by one and we can take care of them. How do you feel about that?”

 

Shrugging one of his shoulders, “Let’s do that, and we could also find out how did they manage to find this island.” Ace added.

 

The both of them didn’t show those people any mercy, especially BlueJam whom have been after them for so long and had even confessed to the both of them (after he sees all of his underlings knocked out on the ground) that he still wanted to go after Luffy. That was the last straw for the both of them; they immediately knew that they couldn’t let BlueJam leave this island alive, of course they didn’t just stop there.

 

They are going to squeeze out all of the information that BlueJam knew.

 

They found out that BlueJam’s new underlings (most of his old crew had died during the forest fire that they started) had managed to find Dogra, befriend the short man, and managed to fill Dogra with enough booze that made Dogra’s mouth loose. After the underling got the information, told BlueJam and BlueJam passed that information to Outlook III; Sabo’s father, who then spread those information out to the other Nobles and Celestial Dragons hoping that he will give him enough credit and maybe help him to climb up the social ladder.

 

The anger boiled up within Sabo’s body. How **_dare_** Dogra leak that information!

 

Ace wasn’t even the one who revealed the information to Dadan and her bandit group (Garp was the one who had told them that), they were supposed to keep that information as a secret to Ace safe from what the World and the World Government wanted to do to his older brother. And Dogra had let that slip to someone who he only knew for weeks and because he is drunk on **booze**. He will **_kill_** Dogra after this incident is settled.

 

“Don’t kill Dogra.” Ace whispered out after his brother had knock BlueJam out.

 

Snarling at his older brother, “He **_leaked_** that information! He was the one who started this whole mess and you don’t want me to **_kill_** him?”

 

Rolling his eyes at Sabo’s over-protectiveness over him, “Dadan will do the rest once you told her about this whole thing, I’m pretty sure that she will allow you to beat the crap out of Dogra first before she end the whole thing herself,” turning his eyes back to BlueJam, “anyway we should do something about him before he wakes up.”

 

Sighing at his older brother, “I have a plan. We will kill him, cut his head off and ship it to my father.”

 

Shrugging, “That works for me but what about the rest?” Ace asks, pointing to the unconscious bodies that are BlueJam’s crew.

 

“We could pass them to the Marines, I could ask some of my contacts to keep them chained up till the Marines arrive or I could ask Dragon-san about what he wants to do with them.” Sabo answered easily.

 

Scratching the back of his head, “Wouldn’t it leave a better message to Outlook III if we send all of their heads to his house? I mean it’s like telling him that the crew he hired to capture me is not strong enough to fight against me.”

 

Thinking about what Ace just told him, it actually made sense in his mind, “Well that sounds good. And with their death, it also means that no one will know about this island or get the directions on how to get here.”

 

“Let’s get started with that, I’ll handle the rest of the crew while you handle BlueJam.” When Sabo didn’t move and is throwing him confused look at him, “Payback for the burn wounds you have to suffer through.”

 

Accepting Ace’s answer with a shrug, Sabo headed towards BlueJam’s body only to realise that he didn’t have a weapon on him that is sharp enough that he could use to cut someone’s head off.

 

“Just break his neck and use one of the knives back at the house to cut his head off and you’ll buy me a new knife or if you want me to do it, I could just use my devil fruit power to burn off his body.” Ace offered as he snapped the neck of the nearest body to him before quickly heading off to the next person.

 

Staring at the flames that is consuming the bodies that are in front of them, instead of the wild fire that he remembered from his childhood and the countless of times where he had to build a fire for warmth during the nights, this fire isn’t insanely trying to consume everything that is within their reach. The flames that he is witnessing in front of him is under his older brother’s devil fruit control and being under his brother’s control, the flames never went further than the neck, leaving the head alone so that they could put forth their plans.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Oyaji, there isn’t any information about Straw Hat showing up Sabaody Archipelago to get their ship coated, in fact no one have any information on where Straw Hat went after they appear on Sabaody Archipelago for the first time.” Haruta informed their Oyaji.

 

The other children who have been resting around the deck turned their heads to look at him; awaiting his next orders on their next move, holding back the deep sigh that he wanted to unleash from his mouth, “I see, let’s head back to the New World but keep a look out for any information about Straw Hat.”

 

None of his children cheered when he gives the orders but he didn’t need their vocal answers to know that they were actually happy with his orders. Not that he could blame them.

 

Fishman Island is one of the islands that is under their protection, that Marines rarely stop here to capture anyone (because Jinbe lives on this island and they believed that he is strong enough to take care of the island) and that there is quite a lot of things for his children to do while they stayed here. However they do spend most of their time in the New World where unexpected things happens in the blink of an eye and the peacefulness on Fishman Island is driving nearly everyone insane.

 

When the deck is cleared, he let out a soft sigh escape.

 

“We might not be able to meet Straw Hat here but we will meet him sooner or later in the New World, so don’t feel so down Oyaji.” Marco stepped out from behind his throne.

 

Smiling down at his First Mate, he couldn’t resist rubbing Marco’s head, “I know Marco, and I just wanted to find out why Ace found the need to leave us instead of staying and telling us the truth plus I also want to find out how did he found out about Teach’s betrayal plans.”

 

Giving out a sigh himself, “That’s also what I would like to find out yoi.”

 

Giving a weak smile at Marco, “We’ll find out one day. We just have to be patience and for it to come.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Dogra and Magra knew that they are going to have a bad day trying to please their boss when she slammed her fist hard and loud enough to break another table and for them to hear after receiving a call in the other room.

 

With just a single glance to one another, they quickly dart off to different parts of the house. Magra went to grab the snacks that their boss likes to eat while drinking and Dogra went for the booze which they both made and bought in the house. When they gathered together, they quickly set the table up so that when their boss return back to the dining room plus kitchen she will see what they had set up and it will lighten up her mood slightly (so that they wouldn’t have more broken furniture and spend their time trying to make them).

 

Instead of having their boss’ mood lighten up when she see what they had prepared for her, her mood became worse when she set her eyes on them. Before they could questioned their boss about what is going on, she had somehow managed to close the distance in-between the both of them in the blink of an eye and punched Dogra.

 

Everything happened so fast that it took Magra a few seconds to process just what happened in the last few seconds, but when he returned back to his senses, he quickly rushed to where Dogra had flown to (after being punched by their boss) to help him up.

 

Before Magra could ask their boss what the hell is going, she had started talking.

 

“How **_dare_** you **_leaked_** Ace’s **SECRETS** to someone you don’t and couldn’t trust with your **life**?! Do you know just how much trouble you had gotten Ace into?!” Dadan snarled out, looking every bit like the bandit leader she is.

 

Magra and Dogra didn’t answer their boss’ questions because they didn’t know what she is talking about. As if she could read their minds, Dadan got even angrier and this is the first time for the two men to see their boss getting this angry (and that includes the incident with BlueJam).

 

“You don’t **remember** what you did?”

 

When her two underlings didn’t reply her, Dadan headed straight out to the forest to try and calm herself down before she confront her two loyal underlings about what she had just found out through the phone call.

 

Dadan’s anger rolled out in waves that they could feel and that froze them onto the spot as they could only stare at their boss’ back as she headed out of the hut that they had built and lived in for years. Once they couldn’t hear the noise that they boss create as she stomp through the forest, Magra quickly looked at his friend and fellow bandit, “What did you do?”

 

It’s a simple question yet Dogra couldn’t answer it. He couldn’t remember telling anyone about Ace’s secrets that he is pretty confident that he hasn’t told anyone about that. While the both of them have never really shown the boys t hat they care a lot about them but they really do, they have kept in the shadows and stalking the children to make sure that they do not get into too much trouble in the forest.

 

Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Magra helped his friend up from the ground, “Come on brother, let’s go and ask boss about what is going on.” It didn’t take them too long to find where their boss is, the noises that she is making by punching the trunks of the trees around her and guided them to her.

 

Deciding to start the conversation since their boss isn’t angry with him; Magra took a step forward hoping that he will be able to direction the attention away from Dogra, “Boss, can you explain the situation to us because none of us have a single clue on what’s going on.”

 

Anger light up in Dadan’s eyes, “That man over there,” pointing her finger at Dogra, “had made a friend when he went into the village, that ‘friend’ that he made is actually one of BlueJam’s new underling and that ‘friend’ got him drunk enough to make his mouth loose!”

 

“What did Dogra revealed?” Magra asked, wanting to know just how much trouble his friend is in.

 

“That idiot had not only told BlueJam’s crew about Ace’s heritage; and all of us here know how dangerous it is if that information went out, but that idiot had also went ahead and revealed about Ace’s powers to see the future!” This caused the two men to gasp out in shock, “And now all of the Celestial Dragons and Nobles are hiring bounty hunters to go after Ace because they wanted his powers!”

 

“… Oh my God…” Dogra whispered out in shock. Falling down onto the ground, he just sat there staring into space in disbelieve that he had just revealed Ace’s secret.

 

“Holy shit.” Is all Magra could say.

 

Both Dogra and Magra knew about the danger that Ace will face if his heritage and power was known by the World, Dadan had learnt about it from Garp and she had passed those information down onto them since she wanted her underlings to know about the danger that they face by housing two children of the World’s Most Wanted Criminals, and they had swore on their life to **NEVER** leaked this secret out. To make things worse, Ace wasn’t the one who revealed his secrets to them; Garp had been the one to do it.

 

“I-is there anything we can do to help this situation?” Magra broke the silence first.

 

Ignoring how dirty her pants might get by sitting down on the ground in the forest, “Yes, Sabo had a plan set and it is already in motion and before the both of you ask, there’s nothing which we could do.”

 

“What do you mean by that?! Ace is in danger, there’s already a plan in motion why can’t we help?!”

 

“That plan involved talking to merchants, with the bounty on our head while it might be low there’s no way where we could take-part in this plan!” Dadan shouted out. When Sabo first tell him about the plan

 

“That plan involved talking to merchants, with the bounty on our head while it might be low there’s no way where we could take-part this plan!” Dadan shouted out. When Sabo first told her about the plan he came up with, she immediately knew that there is nothing which they could do until Sabo told her that he needed her help with something. And that is the only thing which they, strike that, only Dogra could do to redeem himself in Ace’s and Sabo’s eyes.

 

“I made all of this mess yet I couldn’t do anything to solve this.” Dogra whispered out from where he is still sitting on the ground.

 

“There is something which we could help with.” Her two underlings perked up at that sentence, “Sabo needed us to bring a box and make sure it gets to Outlook III’s hands.”

 

Frowning at that sentence, “Why would he want to give his father something when Sabo hadn’t had anything to do with that family for years? What does the box even contain?” The pause before Magra’s last sentence made that sound like an afterthought.

 

“The box contains BlueJam along with his crews’ head.” Dadan sighed out; she had predicted his underlings’ reaction. Holding up a hand to stop the both of them from their continuous shrieking, “BlueJam told Outlook about what he learnt about Ace and that man hired BlueJam to capture Ace and Sabo alive while killing Luffy if he has a chance. Outlook was also the one responsible for spreading Ace’s secret to the other Nobles and Celestial Dragons while the rest are doing their best to stop those disgusting human beings from believing the rumours but to stop the man himself is to just send him a box containing the head of those people who he hired for his job, telling him that those people aren’t strong enough to do whatever he hired them for.”

 

“Hold on for a second, they are going to send the heads means that BlueJam had found out where Ace or Sabo is right?” Dogra asked.

 

Nodding her head, “They have somehow managed to find out where Ace had been living after he left the Whitebeard crew, that’s the other reason why they had to kill BlueJam. If that man is left alive, he will tell other people about the location and Ace will be in trouble.”

 

Magra decided to cut in, “But how is BlueJam still alive? Didn’t he die during the forest fire that he caused?”

 

Shrugging her shoulders, “I’m not sure. Maybe he was lucky enough and found a route that leads him to the Grey Terminal? Sabo did tell me that BlueJam had his face disfigured from the fire. Anyway this isn’t what we should be focusing on; we need to plan on how we should get the box to Outlook’s hands.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

It is unsightly for a Noble; like he is, to have a skip in his steps as he walked through his house (God knows what rumours those lowly life in his house will spread) but it is hard to hold back his joy when his blood-heir had finally contacted him after running away from them for 10 years, even going as far as to send him a gift that is the box that he is holding in his hands now.

 

While he is disappointed that his heir didn’t hand this gift over personally but at least his plan of hiring BlueJam to put pressure on his heir by threatening the life of those two disgusting low-life his heir had decided to befriend when he first run-away from them is a good move he made and is working perfectly fine.

 

Of course he wouldn’t trust his blood-heir to walk around the house alone anymore, not after that foolish child had already broken his heart and trust twice and there is still the risk of that child running away again. He will need to increase the amount of security guard in his house (keeping their eyes on all of the potential exist in his house) and make sure his heir have a bodyguard no matter where he goes, he will not allow that foolish child (who actually ignored his body to become a pirate) to run away again.

 

While it is true that he **needed** that child to come back home to climb up the social ladder and become a higher ranking Noble than the rank he is at right now. Those other low-life beings will think that he is a horrible parent due to his plans of marrying his child to another Noble family as soon as he is back with them for his social standing however none of the low-life knew how hard it is to live the life of a Noble.

 

He still have the heart of his blood-heir in mind, since that foolish child didn’t want to take over his position as the head of the Outlook family, the best thing to do in this situation is to marry him off so that that foolish child and his future grandchildren could still live in comfort. To make sure that his blood-heir wouldn’t have to take over his position once he died of old age, he had to adopt another child to over.

 

But this whole situation is a huge relief for him and took a huge burden off his shoulders. While he has nothing against his adopted child but in the end that child isn’t blood related to him or his wife, he would rather have a grandchild that shares his blood to continue on his legacy. Thankfully his blood-heir finally sees the truth after 10 years of being fed lies by the two disgusting low-life whom his blood-heir had befriend, it might take time for his blood-heir to remember the manners of being a Noble but the time doesn’t bother him too much at all.

 

“Honey, what has gotten you in such a good mood?” His lovely wife asked him.

 

Giving her a big smile, “Something good happened. I’ll tell you about it later on my lovely darling.”

 

“I’ll look forward to it honey.” Smiling at his lovely wife as she headed off to wherever she was heading to, he headed in the direction of his office.

 

Locking the door, he didn’t want to be interrupted by anyone when he opens the present. He quickly made himself comfortable on the pure leather chair, debating on whether he should pull on his gloves to take out the things that his blood-heir had gifted him for forgiveness (that child isn’t that dump to forget what sort of things he liked the most right?).

 

The castle that the Outlook family had lived in for years was expecting the scream that shook the whole foundation. The scream was so _high_ that the guards that were hired went rushing to the mistress, believing that she had been the one to let out the horrifying scream only to find out that the scream was from someone else in the house.

 

After spending 30 minutes trying to locate who let out the scream, everyone finally realise that the master of the house isn’t with them. Thankfully the mistress had pointed out who is missing from the large group of people whom have gathered around the living room, causing all of them to start rushing towards the office room.

 

With the door locked in from the inside of the room, no one could open it until the mistress had ordered them to just break the door down. When that was done, the mistress found the master unconscious on the ground, quickly ordering them to bring the master to their room so that he could rest. Before they could walk out of the room, the mistress is the one responsible for the second earth shattering scream and fainting.

 

While no one understood what is going on and without any permission from both the mistress and master they couldn’t go and check what was he thing that had made the both of them faint; and the young master is out of the house, it wasn’t until the servant head gave them the permission and was willing to take the responsibility did one of the guard went to check.

 

The poor guard had prepared himself for everything. Sadly he never expected that he will see the heads of the group of people whom he had seen interacting with the master on numerous of times.

 

It is like a scene out of a horror movie that his family members have seen before and told him about the story.

 

He might not have the trainings that all Marines have to go through however he had been hunting since young to know that the dried blood where the necks end were proof that the heads were not severed anytime recently, the horrible decaying smell from the rocking heads proved that point.

 

Resisting the urge to empty his stomach, wait. Does this mean that he will have to **_remove_** both the box and the heads?

 

God damn it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Throw both hands up in the air* I could cry tears of both joy and relief that I FINALLY finish this chapter. 
> 
>  
> 
> I had a long battle with both a writer's block and losing the urge to write this chapter and I was nearly defeated. Whenever I was left with 1HP and was about to give up writing for the day, I remembered all of you who were WAITING PATIENTLY for me to UPDATE this story. And that gave me the strength to finally finish this chapter. I can't thank all of you enough!!!!
> 
> With this arc finished, I do believe that this story will end in another two or three chapters. I won't bored all of you with what I feeling and think about that point, I'll leave that at the last chapter.
> 
>  
> 
> After reading through my previous chapters (to check if my memories of what I've written are correct) I realised that my writing style had went from okay to I-don't-know-what-the-hell-is-going-on-anymore. Please do tell me how all of you feel about this change in writing style because I want to know if it makes sense?
> 
> Thank you for all of the kudos!


	15. Chatper 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Not beta-read, did a quick scan through to delete away those repeating paragraphs (which I have to confess that there are a lot of them, thank God I did a quick scan through).

 

 

**__ **

**_ 2 years and 6 months later: _ **

 

 

When one of the pigeons Sabo trained to deliver gifts and the newspaper (to make sure that he stays update with the world) arrived, he immediately noticed the additional blue slick envelope that his brother liked to keep his letter in. Ace tried hard to resist the temptation of raising his eyebrow but failed badly; a damned habit he learnt from Marco that is impossible to shake off, this is something new.

 

Letters from Sabo usually came alone or with the gifts that his brother bought for him, never once did this happen before. If there is a piece of news that Sabo deemed important, it would be circled, dread filled his stomach since the first thing that comes into his mind is that either Luffy had gotten into such a big trouble that their baby brother needed them to save him or Luffy was the one who had created the trouble.

 

Ripping the envelope, he believed that Sabo would want him to read his letter first before going through the newspaper.

 

 

_Don’t destroy anything after you read the newspaper._

_P.S Luffy is going to visit you soon._

_P.S.S Please throw in a punch for me._

 

… That doesn’t sound good at all.

 

If Sabo could somehow predict what his reaction might be, it meant that whatever Luffy have been getting up to will give him a heart attack or make him mad enough that he wanted to strangle someone (most likely Luffy himself).

 

His feelings are so conflicted right now; half of them are resigned t o the fact that Luffy **_will_** always get into trouble or caused it himself and the other half of it wanted to strangle and shake Luffy to demand why he doesn’t _THINK_ before rushing head first into the mess.

 

With the recent incident where Luffy and his crew had created a huge uproar when they appear on Sabaody Archipelago after their two years of training and could finally continue their adventure into the New World still fresh in his mind (Sabo didn’t even write a message when he receive the newspaper to learn about Luffy’s return). He is reluctant to read the newspaper to find out what kind of trouble Luffy got his crew into this soon, plus the World Government have the News Coo in their pocket therefore the truth is definitely covered up with lies added in to paint every single pirates out sailing on the sea in a bad way. The only possible way for him to find out what is the truth and what the lies are is when Luffy comes to visit him and Nami filled him in about the kind of trouble Luffy have gotten everyone into again.

 

After having a short mental debate, Ace sighed out in defeat. It’s best that he read the newspaper now (to have a rough idea on what happened) than to have a full blown heart attack when Nami (or Robin) update him. It’s not like he wouldn’t have one when he is filled in down to the smallest details and Luffy’s suicidal plan of the battle, at least he heart attack wouldn’t be that bad (that’s what he like to think).

 

Scanning through the report about his baby brother’s crew (that Sabo helpfully helped him circled the title), his mind was blown away by what he had just read.

 

Luffy had started trouble on **_Fishman Island_** and the whole crew made it out alive without any of his family members chasing down their tails?! And what about **_Jinbe_**?!

 

The Whitebeard pirates would never turn a blind eye to the trouble brewing on any of the islands that is under their protection, with Jinbe being the first line of defense for Fishman Island and his friends keeping an eye out, there's no way the gentle fishman wouldn't know about trouble. 

 

So why did Jinbe let this sit for so long? Does Oyaji or any of the other commanders know about it? Or did Jinbe kept this information away from Oyaji? Why didn’t Jinbe contact Oyaji for help if he couldn’t handle this trouble or if he isn’t strong enough to stop it?

 

It’s true that he had lost all contacts with his family as soon as he left Moby Dick and while the newspaper did talk about them, he **never** reads them as every single word written are the lies that the World Government fed to the reporters. Sabo didn’t want to provide him any information about them as he didn’t want to risk his life or other people’s life by stalking the Whitebeards.

 

Therefore he wouldn’t have a single clue if his family members have other problems on their hands that diverted all of their resources and attention away from protecting the islands that flies their Jolly Roger to handle the problem they have on hand.

 

Even if his speculation is correct, they should have at least assigned one of their many allies to keep an eye on Fishman Island on their behalf. And what about Jinbe, did something happen to his gentle yet fiercely protective friend?

 

He clearly remember using his powers to check on Thatch before he left Moby Dick, the future he witness might not have been the happiest –he could see the worried faces of his siblings as they surrounded the bed that Thatch was recovering on in the infirmary- but his last vision had been the relief smiles on everyone’s faces when Thatch hobbled out onto the deck when the doctors and nurses deemed him healthy enough to release his friend from the infirmary. And that was it.

 

This is the only disadvantage of having this power. No matter how many hours he spent on training and trying to have some sort of control over his power since young, he just didn’t have the control over how long he could see into the future (the Celestial Dragons and Nobles wouldn’t be too happy about this if they managed to capture him).

 

Maybe he should have come up with a better plan before he left home.

 

Wait that sounded stupid, it’s nearly impossible to keep in contact with his family without having an insider on the ship. Even if he did have the patience and managed to train a bird to bring a video dial to the ship, there’s no way where the bird could have got close enough without gaining any of his siblings’ attention, without a doubt that they would notice the video dial in the bird’s claw and realise that they are being watched by someone unknown.

 

All he could do right now is to wait for Luffy to visit him so that he could ask if they (more like Nami and Robin) knew anything about the trouble that his family is facing. With his hot temper and hot-headedness, he wouldn’t know what kind of trouble he might bring if his family’s life is in danger.

 

Shivering at his memories of the wrath Sabo exhibited during their childhood, he might not be able to survive till the end of the year if he doesn’t control himself and do stupid things. Ultimately he is still Oyaji’s son, he would rather face Sabo’s terrifying wrath than to turn his back on the people who had accepted him for all of his short-comings.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Oyaji,” Kingdew shouted out, rushing towards his throne, “Sleepy’s crew had been attacked this time!”

 

Tightening his hold on his bisento, this random attack had been going on for at least a year. There was never a specific timing on when the attack happens and while it is random however the attacker is definitely aiming at all of Whitebeard’s allies and his children whom had to leave Moby Dick for their missions. The intelligence department had been trying  their best to figure out who is the one responsible for all of the attacks, sadly due to the large number of enemies they made through-out their careers and rookie pirates gunning for them, they aren’t able to come to a conclusion.

 

“Did everyone managed to escape the attack?” Whitebeard asked.

 

“Everyone survived the attack all thanks to Sleepy. He had somehow managed to hold back the attacking force long enough to allow his crew to escape however due to his injuries and the lost of their ship, Sleepy wouldn’t be able to attend the meeting.”

 

“Do they have enough resources to last them until we handle this problem or till it is safe enough for us to send our smaller ships to get them?”

 

Nodding his head, “Sleepy told me not to worry about them, his navigator managed to find an uninhibited island for them to stay at till his injuries healed. Sleepy also apologise that he wouldn’t be able to help for the time being and that they are still offering their help once we managed to find the attacker.” Kingdew answered easily.

 

 

Smiling down at his son, “Tell Sleepy not to worry about anything else besides his injuries, we will contact him when we are launching our attacks so that he could revenge for the lost of his ship.”

 

Nodding his head, Kingdew headed back to the office he just left from to contact Sleepy and tell him about what Oyaji had just said and to warn their other allies about the recent attacks so that they could increase their security while they are travelling to the island where the meeting will take place.

 

“Oyaji, I don’t really like this yoi. I’ll increase the number of watchers in all the shifts yoi.”

 

 

Nodding his head to give his consent to Marco’s suggestion, he kept a tight hold on the wrath that had been boiling inside of him since he first heard about the attacks. As much as he wanted to release his anger, he couldn’t do it on the ship where his attacks will affect the ship and endanger all of his children.

 

The fool who decided to attack his allies to get their revenge will have a hell of a time once they find out whoever they are and come knocking on their doors. They are the Whitebeards; the crew led by the Strongest Man in the World, they will not show the fool any mercy when they stomp down to the fool’s hideout.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Wobbling on the spot where he is standing, Ace felt faint from the information that had just left Luffy’s mouth a few seconds ago. “… You tried to fight against a _Fishman_ in the _water_ by using an _air bubble_ … What the **FUCK** were you **_thinking_**?!” his voice turned hysterical by the end of his sentence, “Do you know what might happen if the air bubble _broke_?!”

 

Pouting at his older brother, “But everything turned out fine at the end.”

 

Giving up on lecturing his brother (Ace knew that all of his words will fly in from one ear and coming out from the other), Ace turned to face Robin (the one in his mind that was labelled as the sanest person in his baby brother’s crew even thought he **_knew_** that she isn’t), “Robin, why didn’t you do anything?!” he sulks (a Whitebeard member doesn’t whine mind you).

 

“I’m sorry Ace, I was on the battle field and didn’t know what Luffy was doing until it was too late.” The gentle smile on Robin’s face didn’t made t hat sentence sounds like she is apologising.

 

Pouting at Robin, “Now you’re being mean to me.”

 

“Oh, then maybe I shouldn’t say that Luffy had lost so much that he would have died if Jinbe didn’t volunteer to donate his blood?” Robin asked tilting her head to the side to look innocent.

 

While Ace is spluttering at the information Robin spilled, everyone just laughed at his reaction. It took a while before Ace was able to calm down, “Oh since we’re talking about Jinbe did you guys found out the reason why he didn’t tell Oyaji about the trouble he is facing?” The cheer in the room disappears with the question he had just asked, his moronic mind started thinking about the worst case scenario.

 

“Jinbe did tell us that the Whitebeard pirates have something on their hands that they had to handle and that he didn’t want to trouble them with Hody Jones, Jinbe didn’t specify anything else.” Robin stated, “Shakky-san was the one who had provided us with the information. It seems like there is someone out there who is attacking Whitebeard’s allies and that they haven’t found out who is responsible yet.”

 

Clenching his fist tightly till his nails almost break through his skin, Ace didn’t know that this is happening or that it will even happen. He had stated that he is still the son of Whitebeard even if he had exiled himself and that he will do anything to keep them safe yet here he is now, having fun with his baby brother and his nakamas while his family and friends are all facing some unknown danger.

 

“That’s not the end of the information she gave us,” Nami continued from where Robin had trailed off, “Shakky found out and told us the one who is responsible for the attacks.”

 

That gained Ace’s attention, “Who is that bastard who is attacking my family and friends?”

 

“The bastard is known as Edward Weevil who stated that he is the biological son of Whitebeard and that he is taking out all of Whitebeard’s allies due to the fact that he wanted a larger portion of Whitebeard’s fortune.”

 

Ace’s pupils narrowed into slits as his anger grew, that idiot who announces himself as Oyaji’s biological son must have been fed with lies from his maternal side in his entire life and that he must have never met or even talk to Oyaji since everyone in the family knew that the so-called fortune Oyaji hold is ‘family’ and that meant everyone whom he had taken under his wing since his pirating career started.

 

He have his suspicions about the ‘biological son’ that basically popped out of none-where. Oyaji’s ultimate goal in his life was to have a family therefore even if he did sleep with someone he loves and have a baby there’s no way where he will keep it a secret from everyone else. In fact what Oyaji would do is to extend an invitation to his biological son (once he reached the appropriate age) to join his crew, that’s what he know his Oyaji will do.

 

“Did Shakky tell you guys about that bastard’s location?”

 

Smirking at Ace, “We predicted that you would want to go after Edward Weevil so I’ve asked the information of that man’s location from Shakky, however we do have a condition before we give you the information.” The smile disappears from Nami’s face after she finished that sentence. Know full well how Ace might take that sentence, true to her words Ace’s face distorted with his boiling anger.

 

Barely able to hold back the snarl that he wanted to release, “What is the condition? I want to hear it first before I make my choices.”

 

Mentally sighing out in relief, from what Luffy had warned all of them when they first brought up this plan, she thought that they might need to have a fight with Ace before he even agrees to listen to their conditions.

 

“The condition we have is that you’ll let us help you take down Edward Weevil.”

 

“… W-what..?” Ace gasped out in surprise.

 

Everyone started laughing at Ace’s reaction to their condition; from the short amount of time that they had get to know Ace, he gives off the vibe that he doesn’t like to trouble people with his problems and with the strength of his devil fruit, they know that Ace could take care of himself.

 

“Why are you guys offering your help?” Ace blurted, eyes widen in disbelieve at how rude he sounded, “D-don’t get me wrong! I’m one of Oyaji’s so I have a reason to help them but none of you have ever met or even had a single conversation with Oyaji before and you guys want to help them?”

 

 

“Yohohoho~ we understand what you’re trying to say Ace-san, so don’t worry too much about it.” Brook was the one who answered, “But to answer your question, it is true that we have never met or talk to Whitebeard and that we have nothing to do with him and vice versa but we know you Ace and that’s enough for all of us. Even if you will never join our crew, all of us view you as one of us; one of our nakama. Of course we would offer our help when one of us is in need of it.”

 

The sincere smile on their face told Ace that they meant what they just said, giving all of them a wobbly smile, “Thank you.” The smiles on everyone’s face brighten when Ace accepted their help and condition easily.

 

“Good, I’ll go and contact Shakky to see if she has any other information about Edward Weevil that she could give us. And don’t worry about Rayleigh, I won’t tell her that you’re with us since all of us know that she will tell Rayleigh about it.” Nami said, waving to all of them before heading out of the dining room.

 

“Thanks Nami!” Ace beamed at her back.

 

It’s as if Nami’s exist is what announces the end of this gathering, everyone started leaving one by one, stating that they have something they need to do or they are heading off to bed. At the end only the two brothers are left with a huge variety of snacks sitting on the table for the both of them to enjoy while they talk.

 

Turning his head to Luffy, “Sabo will not be pleased with our actions when he finds out about it.” Ace couldn’t help the smile from appearing on his face, while he is afraid of facing Sabo’s wrath but he wouldn’t be alone.

 

“Shishishi, Sabo is never happy with what the both of us do.” Luffy answered before he started stuffing his face with the snacks that Sanji made even thought they had their dinner a few hours ago. ”Oh, I wanted to ask you a question.” Luffy started, turning his attention to his brother, “Are you in love with Robin?”

 

Spitting out the juice that he had just drank, Ace couldn’t help but stare at his brother in disbelieve, “W-what? Why did you ask me that question?”

 

Blinking at the snacks that were sprayed with the combination of juice and Ace’s saliva, “I’m not going to eat those,” Luffy pointed at those foods, “I am asking that question because I could see that there is a change when you’re talking to Robin, it doesn’t feel the same as when you’re talking to the rest that’s why, so are you in love with Robin?”

 

Blushing at Luffy, “I’m **_NOT_**!” Ace squeaked out, it took a while for him to calm his heart down before he could even answer Luffy’s question, “Just to clear the air up, I am not in love with Robin so you don’t have to worry about anything.”

 

“But you act differently around her.”

 

Ace’s shoulders slump down in defeat, “You remembered what she had to go through as a child right?” Luffy’s head nodded, “Well, I guess it’s because of what she had to go through that made me feel sort of connected to her because if my heritage was exposed when I was a kid I would have to go through the same thing. I guess it’s because of the lies that the World Government and the Marines spread just because of the blood that flows through our body that made me feel connected to her.”

 

Closing his eyes to think about what Ace had just told him, “So what do you think of her?”

 

Tilting his head to the side, “Hmm… Kind of like a family? Like a sister?” Ace wondered out.

 

“Oh~ should I start calling her sister!” Luffy blurted out.

 

“You can’t do that! She doesn’t know that I see her as family!”

 

Confusion showed up on Luffy’s face, “But isn’t that kind of late now? Cause she is standing there ya know?” he pointed at the door where Robin is standing.

 

Ace’s jaw dropped to the ground, he didn’t even notice that Robin had returned back to the kitchen, “H-How long have you been standing there?”

 

“I’ve been here since the ‘just to clear the air up’ onwards.” Robin answered. The fake innocent smile on her face turned into chuckles when Ace blushed hard enough to cause steam to raise from his body, “Don’t worry too much about it, I won’t tell anyone about it.” However that sentence doesn’t seem to calm Ace down.

 

“T-That’s not what I am worried about!”

 

“Huh, if you’re not worried about anyone else finding out than what are you afraid of?” Luffy demanded.

 

Covering his face with his palms, “I didn’t want Robin to find out about it! It’s too embarrassing!” Ace confessed.

 

Smiling at the cute response she received, Robin headed deeper into the dining room so that she could take the empty seat beside Ace, “I’m actually flattered that you view me as a sister, so you don’t have to be embarrassed about anything.” She would have patted Ace on his head sadly the steam that is still rising from Ace’s body prevented her from doing that.

 

Ace’s answer came out in a muffle due to his hands, “I would rather have you forget about the conversation than feeling flattered about it,”

 

“How about the three of us never bring up this conversation again of course we won’t tell anyone about it.” Robin asked.

 

Ace could only whimper back.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Walking up to where his long-time friend had been standing during the whole time the rest of them were preparing for their mission, “Sengoku all of the preparations are completed, all that is left is for you to give us the signal and we can start.” Garp informed him, the lack of rice cracker in his hand and the fact that he had called his friend by the full name is enough to state how serious this mission is.

 

Waiting for his friend to reply him, Garp stared at the blob that is the island where their mission will be held. This wouldn’t be an easy task for them and they are already expecting a high percentage of casualties on their side but this need to be done as they have their eyes covered from the truth for too long.

  

“Garp, do you ever felt that my plans were sometimes so wrong yet because of my ranks you couldn’t say anything?” Sengoku suddenly asked.

 

Taking a quick glance at his friend, “What brought this on?”

 

“The location and who we’re about to take down.”

 

Letting out a deep sigh, Garp knew his friend is still guilt over some things which he had done in the past while the paperwork and the frequent meetings with the Five Elder Stars have taken away most of Sengoku’s time to think about it but this mission is putting a huge strain on his friend.

 

Because the man they are going to take down in this mission is the person who had murdered Sengoku’s son, the additional fact that Vergo is the mole that the murderer sent in to cover up all of the evidence and tracks and to keep an eye on their movements.

 

“Sen, you do know that Rosinante’s death isn’t your fault right?”

 

Shaking his head, “His death is entirely my fault. If only I had ordered a thorough check of those people who wanted to join the Marines, we would have known that Vergo is related to Doflamingo. If I had hidden Rosinante’s information better, Vergo wouldn’t have found out that Rosinante was sent back to his brother to gather information for us. If I hadn’t agreed to the installation of the Shichibukai, the civilians of Dressrosa would not have to suffer for this long and Doflamingo wouldn’t be under the protection of the World Government.” Sengoku answered, his face overwritten with guilt that it deepens the lines and winkles on his face.

 

Garp knew that his words would not have that much of an impact on Sengoku so he didn’t bother with too many words, “With Vergo shut behind bars, Doflamingo is the other person for you to revenge Rosinante’s death and to do that you will have to take him down, put him behind bars so that he would never get to see the sunlight ever again.”

 

“I know that.”

 

Keeping his voice firm, “Then you shouldn’t let the guilt take over your emotions and mind right now. This mission is crucial for all of us.”

 

Sengoku take a deep breath in, as he exhale all of the guilt that is eating him up inside is also expelled out of his body, “Right, I won’t let it get in the way of the mission. So you don’t have to worry so much right now.”

 

Garp could only allow a small smirk to appear on his face when he sees the determination on his friend’s face. “Come on, let’s get this started.”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter wasn't really what I had planned when I first started writing this story, but in the middle of writing chapter 14 Edward Weevil just suddenly popped into my mind and I was like 'what the heck... Let's use him!' XD Don't worry as this won't change the ending that I had in mind.
> 
> Please look forward to the next chapter (although I am not looking forward to writing the battle scene but I'm gonna do my best!) things are going down!! =D


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Same old warnings XD
> 
> Baralku (or Bralgu) is known as the Island of Dead in the Yolngu culture.  
>  
> 
> I am really sorry that this chapter took this long, I was kind of stuck on some of the paragraphs while I tried my best to keep the words flowing. Please enjoy this chapter!!

 

  
 

 

 

Taking a good look at the island that is sheathed in a thick cover of mist, known as Baralku; or the Island of the Dead, the last known location where Edward Weevil was spotted at. Ace mentally praised the bastard for choosing this island because if he hadn’t accepted the condition that Nami brought up there’s no way in hell that he will be able to find this place.

 

“Oi Nami, are you sure this is the island that we’re looking for?” Usopp asked his voice tremble in fear at the sight before him.

 

Feeling insulted by that question, “Are you questioning me about my abilities as a navigator?!” Nami screamed back.

 

Her tone caused Usopp to shrink back in fear, “I didn’t say that! It’s just that the island doesn’t look like anyone is willing to live there!” He quickly answers before Nami could beat him up.

 

“Yohohoho it does reminds me of the day where I first met all of you.” Brook cuts in.

 

“Do you think we’ll meet more zombies?” Robin asked.

 

Chaos soon breaks out on deck while Ace kept his eyes firmly on the island, ignoring the chaos that is happening behind him. It’s as if he was hoping that by keeping his eyes on the island he will be able to see the outline of Edward Weevil’s silhouette, telling him where he should head to straight away so that he could kill the bastard who thought it will be a good idea to attack all of his friends.

 

“I could sense three unknown presence on that island.” Sanji whispered out as he joined Ace in keep a look out on the island.

 

“Kenbunshoku Haki?” Ace asked, glancing at Sanji from the corners of his eyes.

 

Nodding his head, “Rayleigh made sure to train us on it since it’s something that all of the pirates in the New World knew how to use it.” Turning his attention back to the island, “There is one who is alone from the rest and I believe that she should be Shakky-san’s friend however I couldn’t be certain if I am correct since Shakky-san didn’t tell us if Edward  Weevil is travelling with anyone.”

 

“Seems like we will need to go and check things out before we decide on our next action.” Ace muttered out.

 

“It’s best that you leave Luffy back on the ship when we go and check things out.” Sanji added, “God knows that he will sling-shot himself to Edward Weevil and start fighting him.”

 

Ace couldn’t help but chuckle at Sanji’s words, he knew how troublesome Luffy would be if he knew that there is someone strong on the island and yet all of his nakamas wouldn’t allow him to fight, “That’s actually the worst thing to do in this situation especially when Luffy already  **knew**  the fact that there is someone strong somewhere on the island.”

 

Raising one of his eyebrows, “Oh and how should we take care of Luffy in situations like these?” Sanji asked.

 

“What Sabo and I would do is to tie Luffy to either one of us; making sure this his arms wouldn’t be free and that he couldn’t touch the ground. And if Luffy is making too much noise, threaten him with no meat for dinner and he will shut up until he has the permission to speak.” Ace simply shrugs at Sanji.

 

“… That is kind of a rough treatment don’t you think?” Sanji sounded slightly surprise.

 

Scratching the back of his head, “It’s either that or Luffy will run off alone and maybe get himself into a bigger trouble. Sabo and I decided on the lesser evil of the two plus with Luffy’s Devil Fruit powers he wouldn’t even feel any pain from the tightly tied ropes.” Ace revealed.

 

Rubbing the goatee on his chin, “It does sound like a better option than leaving Luffy behind.” Sanji confessed, “But I’m not sure if anyone else would agree with this suggestion if I am the one who brings it up. They might think that I am bullying our captain.”

 

“Well if you tell them that I am the one who had brought up this idea, I don’t think anyone will disagree with it.”

 

Humming out, “I wouldn’t know if they will accept it but I can try bringing it up the next time. But I doubt that I will need to do it once they see the example later on.” Sanji answered.

 

Laughing out loudly at what Sanji had just said, “Once they see how effective my method is they will understand everything.”

 

Sanji smirked back, “You’re right. Come on, I bet that the rest are already getting ready for the battle later on.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Oyaji!” one of his children shouted but before he could finish his sentence, a familiar wave of Haki hit him.

 

“Ah,” he rumbled out, “looks like we have a visitor.” He informed the rest of his children. Some of his children who were with him long enough knew who that Haki wave belonged to.

 

“It’s been years since we last seen him, I thought that he had died after Roger was executed yoi.” Marco mused out from his position beside his throne.

 

He could only hum back to acknowledge what Marco had just said, while he could be considered as Roger’s friend however there is still the rivalry between the both of them and most of Roger’s crew knew about it. The rivalry between them must have been the reason why Rouge didn’t approach him to protect her once Roger was executed or help with raising their child. He couldn’t help but wonder what had went wrong for Roger’s First Mate to suddenly visit them now.

 

“Whitebeard,” Rayleigh called out as soon as he jumped onto the deck, besides the fact that he had aged Rayleigh hasn’t changed that much, “I’ve come to bring some information to you.”

 

Raising one of his eyebrows, “And what kind of information do you have for us?”

 

Rayleigh kept quiet till he is close to Whitebeard’s throne, “I heard that you’re looking for the person who was attacking all of your allies.”

 

Forgetting that Rayleigh is talking to his Oyaji, “You have information about that person?!” Thatch shouted out. Thatch didn’t get to ask any more questions as Izo had nudged him in the ribs for interrupting the conversation between Oyaji and Rayleigh, but his outburst had gained everyone’s attention and soon everyone started murmuring among themselves.

 

Smirking at Thatch, “Yes, I do have information about him. I know that all of you would have wanted to know about it to seek revenge for whatever had been done to your allies.” Rayleigh answered.

 

Whitebeard could feel a small spark of excitement growing within his body. All of his children had put everything they have to find out who was the one attacking all of their allies yet after months of searching, they couldn’t gain a single ounce of information that could help them. He wasn’t expecting Rayleigh to be the one who will give them what they needed to end this attack.

 

“Tell us.” Whitebeard demanded.

 

Rayleigh did as told, sharing everything about Edward Weevil, the reason why he is attacking Whitebeard’s allies, the last known location and that Luffy might be gunning for Edward Weevil  due to the call he made a few days ago.

 

Tilting his head to the side, “I’ve never heard of an island named Baralku, are you sure your information is correct?” Haruta asked.

 

Before anyone could scold Haruta about how rude he sounded, “His information is correct yoi.” Everyone turned their head towards Marco, “I’ve only heard of that island once but I do not know where it is located.” He confessed.

 

“I have Shakky map out the location, from what I’ve seen it’s only a few hours away from where we are.” Pulling out the map from the bag that he carried with him, Rayleigh passed it to Whitebeard. “Also if the Straw Hats are there first, don’t do anything to them.”

 

Observing Roger’s First Mate’s expression, “Have you taken an interest in them?” Whitebeard ask, holding out the map for Namur to look through.

 

Nostalgia flowed through Rayleigh’s mind, “Ah,” he agreed, “the captain reminded me of Roger. Plus he is also Ace’s younger brother if you do not know.”

 

“We do know that they are brothers.”

 

Nodding his head, “I won’t take up anymore of your time; I have someone who I have to search for.” Rayleigh ended the conversation, pushing himself up from the ground.

 

“Who are you searching for? Maybe we could help you as an exchange for bringing this information to us.” Whitebeard asked, stopping Rayleigh from taking another step.

 

Shaking his head, “You don’t have to worry about it, plus you won’t be able to help me in this search.” Rayleigh said before walking off, ignoring the Whitebeard members who were trying to stop him from leaving.

 

Once Rayleigh’s small boat is nothing more than a small blob to them, “Oyaji, what are your orders yoi?”

 

Glancing around at all of his children on the deck, “Head to Baralku and prepare for battle!” he ordered, his children’s cheers echoed after it.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Travelling in the direction where they could feel the two presences with their Kenbunshoku Haki (they had checked out the other presence on the island only to find out that it belonged to Shakky’s friend who had been warned of their appearance), “Ace do you think that Edward Weevil is Whitebeard’s biological son?” Nami’s question breaks the silence that had fallen on them after they have a quick short talk with Shakky’s friend.

 

“I don’t believe that he’s Oyaji’s biological son.” Ace answered, quickly turning his attention back to the forest every few second even though that Sanji and Usopp are using their Kenbunshoku Haki.

 

“How could you be certain about that?” Usopp couldn’t help but ask.

 

“Well I’ve learnt that Oyaji’s goal in his life is to have a ‘family’ so I don’t believe that he will forget about his own biological son and even forgetting to add him into the ‘family’ he had already created while waiting for the child to reach adulthood. Plus Oyaji would do his best to keep in contact with his son or at least told Marco about it and also made some plans to prevent something like this from happening.” Ace answered, “That’s why I know for a fact that Edward Weevil isn’t Oyaji’s son.”

 

“But what if Whitebeard did  ** _forget_**  about his biological son?” Chopper piped up.

 

Shaking his head, “It’s impossible for Oyaji to do that. If he is able to remember the entire crew’s name; which is over a thousand members mind you, there’s no way where he would forget that he does has a biological son out there somewhere.”

 

“That leads us back to the main question, why would Edward Weevil think that he is Whitebeard’s biological son?” Robin asked from the back of the group.

 

“The only reason I could think of is that the person taking care of Edward Weevil have been feeding him lies every single day, making him truly  **believe** that he is Oyaji’s biological son. Plus he did announce that he wanted a larger portion of Oyaji’s fortune that’s why he had been gunning at our allies, and that could be the main reason why this whole even started.”

 

Frowning, “Actually why didn’t we let the Whitebeard pirates to take care of this problem?” Nami questioned, her attention focused on Ace, “It’s not like you don’t know how dangerous it would be if they realise that you’re the one who had taken down Edward Weevil.”

 

“They won’t find out that I am the one who took care of this problem for them.” Ace stated, but continued on with his explanation when he left the concern from both Nami and Robin, “It would have taken them at least a few more months before they will do anything, and it’s not because Oyaji doesn’t care. It’s that he will worry so much that he will order all of our allies to gather at one of our islands; which would have taken months since everyone is scattered around the world, believing that by gathering everyone together it will decrease the percentage of our allies being attacked. Of course they will use the time to try and find out who is the one attacking them, by the time they did find anything and come here, I would be long gone from this island.”

 

Ace’s words should have comfort and calm Nami down, but for some reason she could feel something bad will happen soon and she couldn’t pin-point what could be wrong.

 

Would someone be fatally injured during the fight later on? Would some Marine Admiral stumble across the fight and decide to help Edward Weevil to take them down? Or is it because they are missing something important from all of the information in front of them?

 

Now that she has the time to think about it, why would the care taker actually risk everything by lying like this? Whitebeard’s reputation is well-known not only by the pirates but also civilians; they would have known that their lives wouldn’t be spared once the truth comes out. So why the hell would the care taker risk everything like this?

 

Could there be a larger picture that none of them are seeing?

 

Before Nami could think any further, Sanji broke through them with his words, “They’re 60 meters in front of us.”

 

Exchanging looks with all of her nakamas they do not need words to know what they were supposed to do; they had already planned their movements before they step on land, as all of them nodded their heads to one another Ace is using his powers to burn off the ropes that physically tired Luffy’s body to his before all of them disperse.

 

Separating as they move silently and slowly enough to form a circle around their target and the other unknown person to cut off all of their escape routes. All of them agreed that Ace would fight against their main target while Robin and Sanji would help in detaining the unknown person

 

All of them agreed that Ace would fight against their main target alone; the others would provide any back-ups if needed, while Robin would restrain the unknown person as soon as she could and if that person decided to escape Sanji would help her.

 

Mentally counting down from forty, which is the time limit for all of them to get to their position. If they couldn’t make it in time, it shouldn’t matter as long as Ace manages to get their main target’s attention and they provide back-ups whenever needed.

 

“Now it’s show time.” Ace whispered to himself before breaking through the trees and bushes that provided cover and hide him from his enemies.

 

 

  

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

The estimated time for them to take down Doflamingo and his gang was way off, instead of being four hours it took them at least 12 hours to finish the mission.

 

Everything turned into a  ** _fucking nightmare_** after the third hour mark.

 

The Celestial Dragon Shichibukai had surrounded the whole island with one of his more terrifying skill called ‘birdcage’, just like the name suggested it surrounds the whole island with Doflamingo’s Ito Ito No Mi. Preventing anyone from leaving Dressrosa, cutting off all communications to the outside world and the worst of all, as time passes the size of the birdcage will decrease.

 

With both sides of their lower ranking members fighting against one another, Sengoku and Garp had gone to tackle the Elite Officers and Doflamingo themselves (with Sengoku calling dibs on the sickening World Noble, leaving the rest for Garp to handle). Sadly the both of them have overestimated their powers and maybe their old age is catching up to them, Garp never really knew about the description of the Devil Fruits that the Elite Officers had eaten and Sengoku never truly knew about Doflamingo’s true fighting abilities.

 

The both of them were only saved because Aokiji had arrived in time to help Garp with the Elite Officers, freezing everyone up except for Senior Pink; who had managed to get out of the freezing range, and Sugar; who managed to escape from the fight with Trebol’s help. Garp who had found out about Sugar’s Devil Fruit abilities knew how devastating everything will be if they let her roam freely had explained the situation to Aokiji and demanded him to stop her as soon as possible.

 

Everything got way worse than what Sengoku expected when Doflamingo started using the civilians of Dressrosa as puppets, forcing them to fight against the Marines around the island who are helping the civilians to get away from the edge of the birdcage. Without any means of communication to tell anyone the reasons behind the civilians’ actions, the Marines tried their best to defend themselves without killing anyone or getting hurt.

 

After Aokiji had froze Sugar, all of those civilians whom had been turned into toys regained back their human bodies and the other civilians remembered all of their loved ones whom had been turned into toys because they were either against Doflamingo’s methods of ruling over Dressrosa or they had found out the truth behind King Riku’s attack. They quickly turned their back against Doflamingo and started helping the Marines in any ways that they could.

 

He couldn’t say that they didn’t have life lost during this battle and while the Marines had done their best in keeping everyone safe, they could only do so much without any Haki trainings or Devil Fruit abilities. At least they have stopped Doflamingo and his hellish governing over Dressrosa and he won’t be stepping out of Impel Down once they bring him in.

 

Watching Tsuru-chan who has the honour of being the person to bring Doflamingo to Impel Down and locking him up behind bars, he has the urge t o take a photo of their back-view and send it to Law. He owns his ‘grandchild’; since Rosinante sees Law as a ‘son’, that much, especially since he didn’t have that much of a choice when the world Government had gave Doflamingo the Shichibukai title allowing the sickening World Noble to do anything he wants while the Marines and World Government closed both of their eyes.

 

“Everything’s finally over.” Garp managed to sneak up next to him.

 

Didn’t really know what to say, Sengoku just hummed, telling Garp that he heard the sentence.

 

“By the way, I know that you wouldn’t take a photo of this scene for yourself so I went and took it on your behalf.” Garp quickly handed over the photo that he took.

 

“Hmm… It seems like I could still send this image to him.” Sengoku mused out before pocketing the photo.

 

“Sen, I’ll even help you to find a way to send it to him.” Garp patted his back.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“Mommy, do you know what is going on?” Edward Weevil questioned as he look at the fire that appeared out of none-where and surrounded them.

 

“Seems like Fire-Fist Ace decided to pay us a visit,” Bakkin answered.

 

“Fire-Fist Ace, where have I heard that name before?” Edward mused to himself.

 

Holding up the cane that she holds in her hand, “You fool! You should remember the names and faces of those fools who called themselves Whitebeard’s son when they aren’t!” Bakkin shouted as she hit Edward a few times.

 

Ignoring the hits; they aren’t that painful to him, “I’m sorry Mommy! I’ll try to remember their names and faces. What should we do with Fire-Fist?”

 

A sly smirk appeared on Bakkin’s face, “Fire-Fist is the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates; one of those people who called themselves Whitebeard’s son, it might be earlier than what was planned but since he came looking for us we will take him down. That will show the World that you’re truly Whitebeard’s biological son and it will also decrease the number of people hogging Whitebeard’s fortune.”

 

“Okay Mommy, I’ll take him down.” Edward immediately comply with his mother’s words, readying his chosen weapon the bisento; the same weapon that his father uses. He will show those fools who is Whitebeard’s real son.

 

“Good afternoon Edward Weevil and Madam, I believe the both of you know my identity so I don’t really need to introduce myself.” Ace greeted as soon as he stepped out into the opening,

 

Snarling at the man who dares to call himself Whitebeard’s son, “Shut up, I am going to take you down and show you that I  ** _am_**  Whitebeard’s son!!” Edward dashed forward covering the distance between him and Fire-Fist within a few seconds, swinging the medium size bisento down onto the Devil Fruit user, he didn’t hold back his strength at all.

 

There isn’t any need for him to hold back his strength against those liars who did nothing but look down on him (thinking that he is lying) and doesn’t believe his claims. All of the others found out the truth the hard way when they tried to block off his attacks and they couldn’t, finally seeing the similarity between Whitebeard and him. While all of those people that he had attacked are allies of the Whitebeard Pirates and that he had killed most of those people during the attacks, but for him to go against the Second Division Commander who is under Whitebeard’s command would be the best way to tell the world and Whitebeard that he is the true heir to the fortune that he holds.

 

When Edward didn’t hear the grunt of surprise and scream of pain, he break out of his thoughts and searched for the smaller form of Fire-Fist; thinking that he must have dodged the attack instead of blocking it, only to see him in the same spot holding to the blade of his bisento with one of his gloved hand. “M-Mommy, he blocked my attack!” Subconsciously backing away from Fire-Fist, “No one has ever managed to do that due to my strength and the blades that is made using sea-stone. Mommy how could this person stop my attacks!”

 

Edward’s focus on Ace broke as he turned to look at Bakkin for answers only to find countless of disembodied arms wrapped around her, limiting her movements and unable to answer due to the hand that had stuffed a piece of cloth into her mouth and covering it at the same time.

 

“I managed to stop your attack due to two reasons, “Ace answered as he started moving towards Edward, “I, too, have monstrous physical strength. Second would be due to the gloves that I am wearing. It neutralizes the effects of sea-stone have on Devil Fruit users.”

 

“That’s impossible! Mommy didn’t tell me anything like that exists!”

 

The smirk widen on Ace’s face, “That’s because every single one of us who have been take under Oyaji’s wings and protection don’t really like to use these. It takes the fun out of a battle don’t you think?” Sighing out, “I don’t really like to use it too since I love having a good battle, but now it doesn’t matter. You’ve been attacking my friends, going even as far as to kill some of them; it’s high time for me to show you the true strength of a Whitebeard pirate.”

 

Staring at the slightly one-sided battle that is happening before their very eyes, all members of the Straw Hat crew  ** _knew_**  that Ace is strong; Luffy have been bragging about his older brother’s powers and they recently found out about Ace’s rejection of joining the Shichibukai, however they didn’t really know how strong Ace is until they witness the power with their very own eyes.

 

They aren’t just talking about Ace’s monstrous physical strength (that isn’t re-enforced with Haki) it’s his insanely precise control over his Devil Fruit abilities are what awed all of them. It showed by how Ace was able to control the ring of fire that he had lit up to surround the battle ground; he did inform them that they do not need to worry about the fire burning them or the items that Usopp uses as his weapons, at the same time using the very same fire to fight against Edward Weevil.

 

The battle proved Ace’s worth of the title as the ex-Captain of the Spades Crew and also his position as the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. But this battle made them realise just how much stronger they will need to become in order to help Luffy become the Pirate King because if Ace wasn’t able to take down Whitebeard; one of the Yonko, when he is this powerful they wouldn’t be able to take down any of the Yonko anytime soon.

 

Each of them knows full well that it is only a matter of time before they cross path with one of the Yonkos.

 

No matter what Ace said about the Whitebeards will not do anything to them because Luffy is his younger brother, they know that their Captain wouldn’t like this fact and will demand Whitebeard to fight against him. And even though Luffy knows Shanks but none of them could put their faith in Red-Hair Shanks in helping them out of any deadly situations when they didn’t even have a way of contacting him.

 

A battle that truly opened their eyes to the overwhelming strength of the pirates that lived and travelled in the New World, the battle with Hody Jones is nothing but a child’s play compared to the one that is happening in front of their eyes.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

The restlessness in the air is getting to all of his children while the thirst for blood is only getting stronger as each second passes. The fool is within their reach yet due to the unfavourable conditions of the wind, their ship hadn’t budged a single millimetre for the past 30 minutes.

 

“Oyaji, we won’t be able to move for the next few hours.” One of his children who are in the navigation unit came to inform him.

 

Thinking of the choices he has on his hands, there is nothing which they could do about the wind however he didn’t want to let the fool go without suffering the consequences of attacking them. “Bring out the breath dials and attach them to the side of our ship.”

 

All of his children cheered at his order, none of them hesitated as they rushed around to help out in any way that they could.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Smashing his heel into Edward Weevil’s right knee; the same attack that had taken out his left knee, the whiny and annoying man smacked face first onto the ground screaming at the top of his lungs at the pain of having both of his knees dislocated. The amount of pain is so unbearable that the fool wouldn’t even try to escape by crawling.

 

Ignoring the screeches that are starting to hurt his ears, Ace bended Edward’s upper body backwards by pulling his hair in order to softly snarl out words that are meant for this fool’s ears, “I hope that you’re not thinking that this is the end of the battle and that I would let you off because this is just the start.”

 

Raining punches down onto Edward Weevil’s face; each punch that connects to flesh created a sickening wet sound along with bones being crashed, there’s no way to stop Ace now. His rage increases when he remembers what happened to all of his friend, those who had lost their lives due to this fool’s attacks, what his family had to go through when they heard the news of someone unknown attacking one of them yet unable to find any useful information.

 

Once Edward Weevil loses consciousness, Ace focused his attention onto the female being held back by Robin. He might not be the most intelligent person on Moby Dick (Marco, Izo and Oyaji takes the crown for being the smartest) and he wouldn’t deny that Sabo is the cleverest one among the three of them however he isn’t an idiot like his baby brother either.

 

Edward Weevil isn’t considered strong in the New World’s standard therefore there has got to be a reason why all of his friends were defeated by this man. And the only reason he could think of is that this female must have done something to help Edward Weevil during those attacks, plus he **_knew_** that there is something more to all of those attacks and he is going to find out one way or another.

 

“Now that I’m done with Edward Weevil, Robin could you leave release her mouth so that she could answer the questions that I have for her?” Only the hand that is covering Bakkin’s mouth disappears, “Madam would you like to do this the hard way or the easy way? Just to let you know, I’m perfectly fine with either choice.” Ace tilted his cowboy hat down enough to cover his eyes, tone serious to show that he wouldn’t blink an eye to torture an old lady.

 

“W-What do you mean by that?!” Bakkin stutter out, fearing for her life.

 

Tilting his head to the side, “Madam, I’m not an idiot or a fool. I know that Edward Weevil isn’t Oyaji’s biological son which means that you’re the one who had planted this lie into his mind, and for you to be risking your life to do something outrageous like this meant that you have someone to back you up. Someone who is strong enough to save you if you’re ever captured and that means it’s one of the Yonkos.” Ace didn’t need a verbal confirmation to know he had just hit the point, “So tell me, who is the one who gave you this idea? Is it Kaido or is it Big Mom?”

 

“I-I’m not going to answer anything!”

 

“I see you’ve decided on the hard way, I’ve no problems with that. Robin, would you mind holding out one of her hand?” Slowly breaking one of Bakkin’s fingers, Ace knew that the old lady isn’t a fighter and wanted to draw out the pain as long as possible. It might be an inhumane thing to do however this intimidating and painful torture will force the old lady to spill the beans sooner or later.

 

After three broken fingers and the fourth one being bended halfway backwards, Bakkin finally spilled the beans. Kaido was the one who had came up with this plan and explained everything to her.

 

Kaido finally found someone who is gusty enough to help him take out his strongest competition for the ‘Pirate King’ position and help him capture Marco the Phoenix alive. However that very same person would need someone to help in taking out all of Whitebeard’s allies that’s why Kaido had reached out to her; due to her step-son’s battle abilities.

 

Bakkin had been reluctant to take part in this insane plan but changed her mind when Kaido had promised to help her out if the Whitebeard pirates had managed to capture her and also allow her to take all of Whitebeard’s fortune for helping them; being unable to turn away from the money, Bakkin had accepted.

 

Humming out, “Even if you weren’t greedy and refused to cooperate with Kaido, he would have killed you on the spot. And trust me Madam, he wouldn’t bother to try and save you if you’re captured by the Whitebeard pirates.”

 

“Kaido wouldn’t kill me!”

 

Raising one of his eyebrows, “Madam, I don’t think that you know how Kaido works, in fact I believe the time when Kaido explained his plans to you were the first time the both of you met?” When Bakkin nodded his head, “Among the four Yonkos, the only two that you wouldn’t trust with your life is Kaido and Big Mom; they are the type who doesn’t care about their crew and would kill those who get in their way. So if you really did refuse to cooperate with Kaido, he would have ordered his crew to kill you and your step-son to make sure that his plans wouldn’t be leaked, and if you were caught by the Whitebeard pirates, Kaido wouldn’t really care or do anything as he believes that if you got yourself captured that means that you’re not strong enough to join his crew.”

 

“W-What would happen if Kaido found out that I’ve leaked his plans?” Bakkin asked, she knew that she wouldn’t like the answer she is going to receive.

 

“No doubt Kaido would have sent his crew to take care of the both of you.”

 

Blenching at the answer, it’s as if Bakkin finally realise the deep grave she had just stepped into, “Are you going to save the both of us?”

 

“Do you really think that I am going to save the both of you after what you’ve done to my family?” Ace asked.

 

“But I’ve told you what I know about Kaido’s plans! Shouldn’t you be saving us for the trouble that we are getting into by revealing everything?!”

 

“Pathetic,” Ace spat out, “Kaido might have been the one who had dug this grave but you were the one who walked into it because of your greed for money; the reason you’re being hunted down by the Whitebeard pirates, and you only revealed the information in ordered to be spared from any further torture or maybe even death. You’ve ended up like this because of your own selfish greed. So don’t blame this on someone else!”

 

Ace didn’t wait for Bakkin’s answer; he actually he didn’t want to hear the old lady speak any longer, before knocking her out cold. Extinguishing the fire that he had set up in a circle, it’s a cue to tell the Straw Hat crew (if they aren’t paying attention) that the battle is over and that they could come out from their hiding spot.

 

“Ace, what do you want to do with the both of them?” Luffy ask his older brother.

 

Ace turned to face Franky, “Do you have any ropes for this old lady here and I would need seastone chains or anything indestructible to tie Edward Weevil up until my family reach this island?”

 

Usopp quickly pulled out the ropes that he kept in his bag while Franky just nodded his head before rushing back to the ship to see if they have anything which they could use.

 

Nami’s eyes narrowed as she stare Ace down, “And how will the Whitebeard pirates know about this island or the fact that Edward Weevil is on this island?”

 

Scratching the back of his head, Ace couldn’t help the flinch when Nami’s glares increased in intensity, “W-Well, I was thinking of asking Sabo to send a message to the Moby Dick using one of the pigeons that he trained or just any other way that could get the message to my family.”

 

Franky’s frantic shouts had cut off whatever Nami was going to say, all of them knew that their shipwright must have witness something disturbing that he felt the need to warn them about as soon as possible.

 

The news that Franky brought with him freezes Ace onto the spot where he stood.

 

“The Whitebeard Pirates are heading in this direction!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Peeking out* I really hope that the battle scenes; both the explanation of the fight on Dressrosa and Ace's fight against Edward Weevil, is acceptable. I really, really dread writing any battle scenes because I know that I'm not skilled enough to do them any justice.
> 
> But Dressrosa and the case with Edward Weevil is finally done, the next chapter will be the last chapter for Seeking For Freedom. I don't really know if anyone of you managed to notice or figure out the surprise that I'm planning to add in the next chapter, please do comment on what you think might happen. I'm not trying to increase the amount of comment on this story but I just want feedback to see if my storyline is predictable (my damned enemy besides tagging on AO3).
> 
> Anyway I'm really EXCITED to start on the next chapter! I'm not really sure when I will be able to upload the next chapter but I'll do my best to upload as soon as possible!!


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for taking this long.
> 
> Please note that this isn't the end of this story, I'll explain at the end.
> 
> Warnings: I don't have a beta and I'm not satisfy with how I wrote the first portion.

 

 

 

 

 

It took everyone’s brain way too long to process what Franky had just warned them, while most of the Straw Hat pirates are panicking about what they should do in this situation; Ace was having a mental melt-down.

 

All he could think of is to run away before his family members catch up with him. Running in the opposite direction from where Franky is coming from, if Ace wasn’t panicking and worrying about anything, he would have realised the mistake he had just made.

 

He is running **_AWAY_** from where Thousand Sunny is anchored at, and that he didn’t have any other means to leave the island since he had left Striker back at home because Luffy had offered to bring him back after the battle with Edward Weevil.

 

But that doesn’t matter in Ace’s mind, all he wanted and needed to do is to create as much distance as possible between the Moby Dick and him before any of his family members uses Kenbunshoku Haki and noticed that he is here; on this island, along with his baby brother’s crew.

 

“Ace, you’re running in the wrong direction!” Nami shouted out, catching everyone’s attention. She started running after Ace, the additional foot-steps behind her told Nami that her nakamas are following her.

 

Ace wasn’t able to get too far as Robin used her Devil Fruit powers to restrain Ace’s limbs, forcing her younger brother to land face first onto the ground.

 

“What the **_FUCK_** are you doing?!” Ace snarled out, the panic fuelling both his body and mind which always result in him leashing out with his anger without thinking.

 

“Ace you’re running in the wrong direction.” Nami answered, “Sunny is anchored that way.” She pointed in the opposite direction.

 

“I can’t head there; they will know that I am here if any of my family members uses Kenbunshoku Haki.” Seeing that Ace is conscious of what he is doing, Robin had released him, allowing him to sit up and be checked over by Chopper.

 

Nodding her head, “I do have a plan but there are some risks.” When her nakamas nodded their head to tell Nami to continue, “All of us need to get Whitebeard’s attention and try to prevent anyone from heading inland while Franky and Ace sneaked to Sunny, Ace will lift the anchor while Franky prepare the ship for Coup de Burst, once everything is set up, the rest of us will need to think of a way to get onboard and get out of this area.”

 

The plan sounded solid to everyone, as they are cracking their heads trying to think of a way, Luffy declared that he has one, “I could just sling shot all of us onto Sunny but you guys will need to make sure that you’re within my grabbing range.”

 

Everyone couldn’t help but blanched at what their captain had just told them, each one of them have horrible personal experience of being fling around by Luffy (remembering the painful crashes onto the deck because they weren’t prepared to land) or that they were the cushion when Luffy fling himself around the ship.

 

Deep down in everyone’s mind, they know that Luffy’s idea is the only method to make sure that everyone makes it back to the ship on time and without the Whitebeard pirates cutting of their route.

 

Shaking his head, “You won’t be able to make it, Marco could change into a phoenix and catch one of you in mid-air, holding the person as hostage unless Luffy wraps his arms around all of you tightly. And if Oyaji decided to join in, he could just catch all of you with a single hand.” Ace pointed out the flaws in their plan. He could see it clearly, after spending a large amount of time being drilled by both Marco and Izo to remember the Whitebeard’s fighting tactics, Ace could almost predict how his family members would reaction.

 

Shrugging her shoulders, “It doesn’t matter if any of us is captured as long as you’re able to make it out of this area without any of the Whitebeard pirates catching you.” Nami turned to look at the rest to see if they agree with her statement, a smirk appeared on her face when everyone nodded their heads.

 

Calculating everything in his mind, “No,” Ace whispered out, “I can’t let all of you risk yourself like this; it isn’t fair for all of you.”

 

“But that’s the only solution I could think of, unless you have a better plan?” When Ace shakes his head, “We either follow the plan that I have or you would have to go give up and be found by your family members.”

 

Vigorously shaking his head, “I don’t want to be found by them but I also refused to let anyone of you get into trouble. There has got to be another way where we could pass my family members undetected.”

 

When no one said anything, Robin decided to take things into her own hands, “Ace, you won’t like what I’m about to say however I want you to listen to the end.” Robin only continued when Ace agreed to listen, “Don’t you think that this would be a good time for you to finally give your family members the full explanation?”

 

The horror that appeared on Ace’s face is so strong; it’s as if Robin had just told him that everyone n the World are out to get their hands on Luffy, there isn’t any need for Ace to speak as they already know the answer, “Don’t you think that your actions of retaining the explanation of the truth is too cruel to your family members?” Robin asked, hoping that she might be able to put some sense into Ace’s mind.

 

“I’m not being cruel! I’m a danger to everyone who is close to me due to both my heritage and powers! All of you knew about it!” Ace exploded, it took him a few deep breaths to calm himself down (the deep breathing exercise Marco had taught him), “I’m certain that my family members will soon forget how I look like and will soon forget that they used to have a brother named ‘Ace’.”

 

Shaking her head disapprovingly, “I have no idea who was the person that told you that but I’m a hundred percent certain that no one would ever forget the face and name of their loved ones.”

 

The rest didn’t dare to interrupt Robin and this conversation.

 

They had talked about Ace’s situation, about Ace’s choices and if they actually agreed if this is how they wanted their captain’s older brother to live for the rest of his life; miserably along and with his freedom taken away from him. No one liked Ace’s decisions, all of them are pirates; they had their taste of freedom, they would never give that up even if it meant their family would be targeted by bounty hunters or the Marines.

 

Because all of them will kill those people who believed that it’s a good idea to threaten those that they love.

 

All of them **_really wanted_** to help Ace; help him realise just how stupid his decisions and choices are, from the stories that Rayleigh had shared with them about what the knows about the Whitebeard pirates, they knew that Ace’s family members wouldn’t care about the dangers they will face if Ace did return back to them. Sadly none of them brought this up as they are kind of afraid of how Ace would react to the conversation and they kept on dragging and pushing the talk off until now.

 

Shaking his head, “They **will** forget about me. After all I am the one who had killed one of the few members who have been with them for the longest even if that same member had been planning to betray everyone.”

 

Frowning at those words, “Robin didn’t know why Ace would want to punish himself like this and since words doesn’t seem to have an impact on him, she would need to take some drastic actions. “I’m sorry Ace.” She whispered out, loud enough for everyone to hear.

 

Once again she uses her Devil Fruit power to restrain Ace; stopping her younger brother from escaping.

 

Robin’s actions were so sudden and bizarre that everyone could only stare at her in shocked silence as Ace struggled against the restrains, “Robin, what are you doing?!” Chopper shrieked, pulling the brim of his hat down in panic.

 

“I have enough of this situation and am taking matters into my own hands because Ace is a fool who couldn’t see the pain he is causing everyone by running away.” Robin’s tone is ice cold, causing everyone to flinch (they have never heard her use his kind of tone before, not even during the time when they first met her in Alabasta and she was their enemy).

 

Zoro perked up, “And what are you planning to do?”

 

“I am going to bring Ace back to his family members, Luffy would you mind if we travel with the Whitebeards for a few days?” Robin turned to their Captain.

 

“And why are we going to travel with Ace’s old man?”

 

Her smile widen at the question, “So that we could explain the situation to them if Ace continues to be a stubborn idiot.” (Later when the Straw Hats minus Robin gathered around to talk, all of them swore that they felt a ice cold shiver creeping down their spin when Robin finishes this sentence.)

 

Growling out, “Robin just because I feel that there is a special bond between the both of us due to our past and the conversation you overheard a few days ago doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t use my fire to burn your hands even if you’re a lady.”

 

Ace’s threats caused Sanji to hiss out in anger, “You will not do such degrading thing to a lady! I don’t care if you’re our Captain’s older brother or not, I will make sure to **_kick your ass_** all the way to next year if you dare to lay a hand on the ladies!”

 

Ignoring Sanji’s comment, “I would love to see you try.” Robin answered as the hands pinning Ace down are all covered in Busoshoku Haki, noticing the situation that he is in, Ace continues to struggle and spit curses that would have made the Whitebeard pirates proud.

 

Ignoring them, Robin knew that she wouldn’t be able to beat Ace in the stamina game, “Does anyone of you happen to have a seastone cuff on hand right now?”

 

“Don’t give it to her!”

 

Ace’s shout had freeze the other members onto their spot, none of them knew what they should do or whose side they should side with (it’s either they suffer Ace’s wrath or Robin’s). Reading the concern on her nakamas’ faces, “Just think about this question, would you rather Ace spend the rest of his life with those people known as the Whitebeard pirates who are strong enough to take care of themselves and will no doubt forgive Ace for keeping those secrets away from them or see Ace live the rest of his life on that island alone as our visits becomes rare as the Marines will be on our tail and we couldn’t risk revealing the location of Ace’s island.”

 

It didn’t take Usopp too long before he reached his decision, digging into his large bag only to pull out the seastone cuff, Ace knew that no one is going to help him.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

When they heard that the anchor will be dropped in another 30 minutes, Marco and Whitebeard had positioned themselves at the bow of the Moby Dick. Sadly due to the enormous size of the ship and the depth of the seabed, all of them will have to use their smaller ship to get on land. It might take at least a few hours to ferry everyone onto Baralku but it’s worth it. Whitebeard couldn’t deny his children from witnessing the revenge for their allies, their friends.

 

“Is that…” Marco suddenly whispered out, catching all of the Division Commander’s (who had decided to join their Oyaji and their oldest brother at the bow) and Whitebeard’s attention.

 

“What do you see son?” Everyone knows that Marco’s vision is at least a hundred times better than a normal human due to his devil fruit.

 

“Straw Hat’s ship is anchored at Baralku yoi.”

 

Squinting his eyes, Thatch tried to see if he could spot the ship, “How do you know that the ship belongs to Ace’s little brother?”

 

“Because unlike you yoi, I read the newspaper daily and have seen the article about Straw Hat’s crew return after disappearing for two years, it included a photograph of their ship.”

 

Unable to form a good come-back, Thatch could only splutter while the others snickered at his misfortune. Pouting, “But why would they be here? Without Rayleigh’s help or the map that he has given us, it’s nearly impossible to find Baralku.”

 

Unable to hold his sigh in, “Rayleigh did say that we might find Straw Hat here yoi.”

 

“But I do find it interesting that they would help us out when they have never met us or even know anything about us.” Izo pointed out.

 

Without any answers, Marco decided to use his Kenbunshoku Haki to scan the area to see if he could find the presence of Straw Hat and gage their location; he might ask Oyaji for permission to head there to ask what they are doing here. No sooner had he done that, Marco noticed the nostalgia presence that he had been missing for around three years.

 

His sudden intake of a deep breath caught everyone’s attention.

 

Hearing the chocking sound from his older brother, Jozu didn’t hesitate to pat *coughbeatcough* Marco’s back. The mask that Marco wears might be perfect to deceive their other brothers and sisters about the mess his mind is in but the other Commanders and Oyaji could see the cracks getting large and larger as each day passes.

 

All of them are worried for Marco; since the man couldn’t and wouldn’t take off his mask for a single damn day unless he is behind closed and locked doors, and they didn’t want their brother to break down at the worst possible time.

 

Yes, all of them have been waiting for it and feared that the fight with Edward Weevil might break their strongest and calmest brother. And it shows because Marco would have been able to withstand Jozu’s strength; the both of them sparred and trained together, when Marco stumbled forward at least three stops, it tells them that there is something wrong. The clear terrible sadness shown on Marco’s face made their body tense up; ready for any news.

 

“M-Marco, what’s wrong?!” Haruta’s voice reached a new height and no one; not even Thatch, commented about it.

 

It took a few failed tries before Marco could finally get the words out of his mouth, “… A-Ace yoi… I can feel Ace’s presence on that island.” Barely above a whisper, all of them had to strain their ears to hear the answers.

 

That information surprised all of them, they had been waiting and still am waiting for Ace to come back into their lives, they just weren’t expecting the time to be now. Everyone including Oyaji stretched out their senses, covering as much distance as they could with their Kenbunshoku Haki to check whether the presence truly belongs to Ace or is Marco’s mental stability finally reached its limit.

 

Once each of them had confirmed the presence indeed belongs to Ace, they could help but **believe** that their youngest brother had came to Baralku to help them take out the ‘threat’ their allies have been facing.  Their happiness basically oozes out from them.

 

How could they not? Their missing brother who had saved all of them from suffering from any betrayal is finally returning back home and all of the questions that had been swimming in their mind will be answered.

 

“Marco, I want you to head there and make sure that Ace wouldn’t try to escape from us.” Oyaji ordered.

 

He didn’t need to be told twice, changing into his phoenix form and flying straight to the island without looking back.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

No one blinked their eyes when a bird that is burning in blue flames landed a few feet away from them and when the bird changed into the familiar human form of the First Mate of the Whitebeard pirates, Nami was able to ram one of her elbows into Luffy’s rib before their idiotic captain could make any noise.

 

They are the spectator to Ace’s reunion to the person he loves with all of his heart, mind and soul. This isn’t the time for them to speak.

 

“Ace,” Marco sounded breathless, “have you finally made up your mind to return back to us yoi?”

 

When the silence dragged on for too long, Robin decided to speak up on everyone’s behalf, “We, as in the Straw Hats, believe that it is time for Ace to stop running away.” They didn’t need to check on Marco to know that the Whitebeard pirate is disappointed by that fact; if they were in Marco’s shoes they would be disappointed too.

 

“I see yoi.” Nami really take her hats off for Marco’s perfectly controlled tone that doesn’t reveal his true emotions.

 

“I would like to add that Ace was the one who took out Edward Weevil and his care-taker.” Robin added, hoping that this would help Ace’s situation.

 

Nodding his head, “My family members will be here soon and we will be taking the three of them.” Marco pointed at the Edward Weevil group and Ace, wanting to see if the Straw Hat crew is willing to let him take the three of them.

 

“On the condition that we will be travelling with you guys.” Luffy stated, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

 

Marco’s eyebrow rose when he heard it, “May I ask for the reason yoi?”

 

Shrugging his shoulders, “I just want to see how Ace will be.”

 

“I understand yoi. I believe Oyaji wouldn’t object to your condition at all.”

 

“If Ace refused to explain the situation, we will be doing that for him.” Robin’s sentence is also meant for Ace who had been silent for this whole time, telling him that they **_WILL_** reveal his secrets to everyone if he doesn’t man up and do it.

 

Blinking at Robin, “… I do understand what all of you want to do yoi. No offense but we would like to hear it from Ace himself.”

 

“It’s gonna take a while.”

 

Marco couldn’t help but smile at Luffy’s confident statement. Personally he knew that it would take a while before Ace would open up to them; it’s the same as the time when they ‘kidnapped’ Ace after Oyaji defeated him, “I know yoi, and I am willing to wait for as long as Ace needed.”

 

“Shishishi, you’re a good guy.”

 

“Thank you yoi, is it possible for me to speak with Ace before the rest arrives?”

 

All of them parted away from Ace, deciding to head to where Edward Weevil was left so they could give the lovers the privacy they needed yet still close enough to see what they are doing. Zoro who have never been ashamed or actually cared about what he does kept his eyes on the lovers, it’s not that he doesn’t trust Marco to not harm Ace but Zoro just like to keep an eye on things.

 

“Are we really doing the right thing?” Chopper asked, gaining everyone’s attention.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“What if we’re all wrong and Ace wouldn’t be happy once he returns back to live with the Whitebeard pirates?”

 

“Chopper, have we heard Ace said anything bad about the Whitebeard pirates?” When Chopper shake his head to answer Robin, “Up until now, have Marco done anything that doesn’t sit well with us?” once again Chopper shake his head, “Then we wouldn’t know whether we are doing the right or the wrong thing until Ace returned back home and that’s why I demanded that we travel with the Whitebeard pirates so that we could see how they would treat Ace.”

 

 “What if the Whitebeard pirates’ attitude changes when they learn about Ace’s power?”

 

Looking at Robin, “Well, I believe we can sneak in; which we could do it easily as Whitebeard will give us access to their ship as we are travelling along-side with them, kidnap Ace and leaving a dummy in his place, use Coup de Burst a couple of times to get out of their sight and bring Ace back to his island?” Sanji asked, keeping his eyes on Robin to see if she agrees with what he had just said.

 

When Robin nodded her head, everyone (except Sanji and Robin) is stunned silent with the plan that they had just heard, “Robin you’re a genius!” Chopper cheered as softly as he could without warning Marco about anything.

 

“The Whitebeards wouldn’t be too happy if we did do that.” Brook commented.

 

Shrugging, “It doesn’t matter if they are not going to be happy with us, Ace is our nakama and we don’t leave our nakama behind to suffer alone. They can come after us as much as they would like but as long as they don’t find out where Ace lives, we have Coup de Burst and that we are strong enough to take care of ourselves, I don’t mind anything.”

 

“Super!” Franky cried out before lowering his voice, “Usopp I will need your help later on to create the dummy that resemble Ace.”

 

“Isn’t that too early to create a dummy?” Usopp asked.

 

Franky shake his head, “It is better that we create the dummy as soon as we could because we wouldn’t know when we might need it.”

 

As Franky and Usopp started discussing about the materials that they needed, if the materials they have on Sunny is enough to make one and how they should create the dummy, the rest of them just kept quiet and Zoro continued keeping watch on the couple.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Closing the distance between the both of them, Marco could see that Ace is purposely avoiding eye contact with him; the behaviour that his lover exhibits when he is displeased with the situation. Feeling the sudden urge to touch Ace (to make sure that his lover is **in front of him** and that this whole thing is not something that his brain produced to screw with him) Marco slowly reached out; making sure to keep his hand within Ace’s sight as if he is facing and trying to comfort a scared animal instead of his lover, by doing this Ace has the choice of accepting or rejecting his touch. Plus it gives him enough time to mentally prepare himself (so that he wouldn’t break down) if this is a cruel prank played by his mind.

 

Thankfully the head that his fingers touched first is both solid and warm and that Ace accepted it; even if his body is tensing up as much as it could while being weakened by the seastone cuffs. It took a few tries for him to clear his throat before he could get the words out, “I missed you so much yoi.” That came out softer than a whisper but loud enough for Ace to hear.

 

Carting his hand through Ace's untameable hair, the familiar sensation that Marco had missed since he found out Ace was missing from their home. Taking his time, Marco  _ **needed**_ the time for his brain to process the fact that  _ **ACE IS RIGHT HERE AND WON'T LEAVE HIM AGAIN**_   and of course to find the words that would calm Ace down.

 

“With Shanks’ help, we are able to find out the plans that Marshall. D. Teach had been planning and have the evidence to prove that theory up so none of us are truly angry at you yoi.” Pausing slightly, “But I can tell you that everyone’s curious yoi, about how you found out about that coward’s plans when nothing gave him away. Don’t bothered to lie to us about how you find his behaviour strange because we had interacted with that coward way longer than you have and none of us even noticed anything yoi.”

 

Ace didn’t reply and Marco didn’t bother to force a reply out of his stubborn lover. He didn’t have or need to hear the answers right now, plus they have all the time in the World to wait for Ace to finally get over whatever obstacles and demons he faces and give them the answers to everything.

 

Of course his family members; mainly Izo, would strangle him if he receive the answers first.

 

The only problem Marco faces right now is that he **_couldn’t_** force himself to look away from Ace. The ridiculous fear of Ace who will once again disappear on him had over-taken Marco’s mind even if he knew that Ace have all of his strength taken away by the sea stone cuffs, that he could out-run Ace in his phoenix form and that his family members are on their way.

 

If the fear is this bad right now, Marco wouldn’t know how bad it might get once they are back on Moby. When they place Ace back in either the Second Division Commander’s room (the room that Ace rarely use once they had gotten together) or his room so that he could keep an eye on his lover.

 

Although he would rather have Ace placed in his room but Marco couldn’t forget about the hopes and prayers he muttered to whatever God that might be listening to him (and pity him enough to listen) that when he wakes up every single morning (before he opens his eyes) that he will find Ace sleeping on the empty spot Marco had left for his lover. And when Ace would wake up, a bright yet sheepish smile would be on his lover’s face while Ace apologises for disappearing without telling anyone or leaving without a single note only to have it shattered when he opens his eyes to find the spot he left is always empty and cold.

 

All that is left and could do is to gather all of the broken shards and tried to piece them back together before heading out of his room; pushing aside his own sufferings and pain, putting on the mask and role of the First Division Commander and First Mate for his family.

 

Marco isn’t blind.

 

He knew and could feel his other fellow Commanders’ and Oyaji’s worries directed at him but he isn’t the only one who is suffering and he couldn’t let his guard down when he is the first line of defence for his family. He would rather die than put his family in danger because he didn’t know how to push his needs aside.

 

“The statement that I’ve just said about waiting for as long as you need to explain the situation to us isn’t a lie yoi, all of us are willing to wait for you.” Turning to look at Ace (who had avert his eyes to the ground), “Even if it means that you’ll take weeks, months or even years yoi, I’ll wait for you.” Marco ended the conversation by kissing the top of Ace’s head.

 

A slightly tensed silence falls on the both of them as they waited for their family members to arrive (which shouldn’t take too long unless they had met some obstacle on their way here), the Straw Hat crew are still keeping their distance; giving them their privacy, trying to look as if they are busy with Edward Weevil except for their samurai who haven’t look away at all and he doesn’t know how to feel about that.

 

Marco ignored how uncomfortable Ace looks since his main concern would be his family members’ reaction when they learn that Ace hadn’t been planning to return back to them any time soon. Even if he did try to guess their reaction; especially Thatch’s and Izo’s, it’s enough for him to feel phantom headaches. Oyaji will need to do some damage control before they exaggerated this whole thing.

 

All of them could suddenly feel a slight tremor through the ground, as the Straw Hat crew were wondering if they were going to be experiencing an earthquake, Marco knew the cause for it. “Don’t worry yoi; we’re not going to be hit with an earthquake. It’s just Oyaji who is heading this way.” Marco informed them. Barely holding back his snickers when the rookie crew are shooting him looks of disbelieve, people usually know that Oyaji is large (due to the information from the Marines) however they do not know the exact size of Oyaji’s form until they met him in person.

 

“Marco, tell me who is the one who dared to put sea stone on my son?” Whitebeard demanded, his posture radiating his anger.

 

Usopp, Nami and Chopper couldn’t help but cower behind their three strongest fighters that are Luffy, Zoro and Sanji; they didn’t want to see the wrath of the Strongest Man in the World. They know they wouldn’t survive.

 

Stepping forward, Marco knew that he needed to do something before shit hits the fan, “Oyaji, the Straw Hats needed to do this  to prevent Ace from running away from us yoi.” Noticing the frown on Oyaji’s face, “Ace wasn’t planning to return back to us today but the Straw Hat crew believe that it’s time for him to stop running away from us yoi.”

 

Marco could see the smiles fading from Haruta, Izo and Thatch’s face, before they could open their mouth to say anything, he had send a glare at the three of them as he shake his head; telling them that this isn’t the place and the time for them to speak their mind yet. “Ace had also helped us to defeat Edward Weevil who is surrounded by the Straw Hat crew yoi.” He added, bringing his family’s attention back to the reason why they are on Baralku in the first place.

 

“I see, are we allowed to bring all of them back to Moby?” Oyaji asked Marco; deciding to keep his attention to his son since he had been answering all of their questions, Oyaji’s tone didn’t show his disappointment at what Marco had just revealed.

 

Nodding his head, “We are allowed to but the Straw Hat crew will be sailing beside us for a while yoi.”

 

“Why are they sailing with us? Don’t they have their own plans?” Haruta asked.

 

“They just want to keep an eye on Ace yoi, nothing much.” Deciding that this wouldn’t be the time to tell them every single detail, Marco will tell them once they get back home and when there is a meeting to talk about what they should do with Edward Weevil.

 

As everyone started moving, the Straw Hats decided that they should escort Ace (more like carrying him back o where their ship is docked) with Speed Jiru heading back first to clear the deck and asking everyone to wait in the dining room for Oyaji’s next order, Jozu, Thatch and Curiel carried Edward Weevil and his care-taker back to Moby to be thrown into one of the prison they had built on Moby before they come to an agreement on what they should do with them.

 

With Marco and Oyaji trailing behind everyone, “Everyone’s going to be okay son.” Oyaji whispered out.

 

Marco could only nod his head. Because he **_knew_** that everything will make a turn for the better, even if it takes a long time for Ace to finally start talking. He is good at waiting, and he is willing to wait until Ace forgives himself and return back to them. Marco is even willing to beat anyone up if they are impatient and wanted to force Ace to spill everything because without a doubt, Ace will return back to them as their Second Division Commander and brother, will return back to his side as his lover and mate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for taking this long to update this chapter, I'm working on two new story that took up most of my time (I didn't want to wait too long before uploading them) and have started writing both of them.
> 
> Not only are the two stories taking up most of my time, this chapter is so hard for me to write for some reason. The words that I've written at the start just doesn't feel right no matter how many times I've tried to rewrite them. Even now I'm not totally satisfy with how this was written out, so in order to change my feelings about this whole chapter, I started working and writing out the two new stories that appeared in my mind.
> 
> To prevent all of you wonderful readers and supporters from waiting any longer (because God knows when I will be able to produce something that is up to my standards) I've decided to split the ending which I'm planning into two.
> 
> Again, I'm sorry for making all of you wait for a chapter that had been split into two. I'll do my best to bring out the next chapter as soon as possible!!


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the long wait, this half-done last chapter and not answering the comments that all of you wonderful readers had left for me.
> 
> I will be explaining at the end of the chapter. Please enjoy reading this chapter!
> 
> Warnings: not beta-read, I didn't proof read it, and the grammar might be sucky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though it’s only been a weeks since Ace had returned back to them, his stubborn lover’s refusal to talk to anyone; even to his baby brother and the Straw Hat crew, is starting to grate on everyone’s nerves. They had tried everything in their books to try and make Ace talk, even resorting to blackmailing which they usually reserved for drastic measure (and everyone agree that this situation is one) and the latest plan his siblings came up with is to have Marco go down on his knees to beg Ace and see if he breaks.

 

When Marco heard the details of their plans, he had refused to have any hands in it, leaving his brothers and sisters to come up with another plan but up till now, nothing had worked.

 

While Oyaji had tried his best to redirect the restlessness and anger everyone is feeling but it doesn’t seem to work while Ace continued to keep them in the dark.

 

And for this, Marco is grateful that the Straw Hat crew had wanted to travel alongside with them. Not only is it refreshing and a change of pace to have a rookie crew that consisted of different personality and are always fascinated about every single thing that they came across in the New World (even if Oyaji had ordered them to stick to the island under their protection). The Straw Hat crew is a good distraction for all of his siblings since the rookie crews are always creating havoc on both ships.

 

Plus it’s hilarious to see all of his siblings’ face turning blank when they realize the amount of trouble Ace’s little brother could get into while they are on a ship out in the middle of the ocean without anything dangerous surrounding them (and it’s a warning that all of the Straw Hat had warned them even before they set sail after placing Edward Weevil and his care-taker in the prison).

 

And Marco couldn’t even say that Ace’s little brother is the only one who is good at creating and getting into trouble because the rest of the rookie crew are just as good at it themselves even if they had tried pinning all of the fault on their Captain.

 

Because even before the first day even truly ended, Sanji; Straw Hat’s chef, had nearly gotten into a fight with Thatch. Yes, the blond chef had nearly gotten into a fight with their most laid-back brother, the very same brother whom had been burnt by his stubborn lover when Ace first woke up on the Moby Dick after they had ‘kidnapped’ him and waved off the nearly third degree burn off like it’s nothing.

 

Even if Marco had been there; witnessing and overheard the whole thing, he still doesn’t really understand the reason why Thatch had been so pissed off with the rookie.

 

All Sanji did was to offer his help on the first night when Thatch offered to cook dinner for everyone (there’s no way where the Straw Hat crew have enough ingredients to cook for the Whitebeard pirates), and while his brother had politely refused to help, Sanji had warned Thatch to not underestimate their Captain’s appetite. And somehow that sentence had pissed Thatch off. If Marco hadn’t been there to smack both of their heads, no doubt a fight would have broken out. And all of his stupid siblings will be there to cheer on the fight.

 

After a day or two after the incident, Marco had secretly pulled his brother aside in order to ask him to explain why he had nearly gotten into a fight only to find out that Sanji had insulted Thatch.

 

Ace had been with them for nearly two years and Thatch had been the Head Chef way longer than that and **_knew_ ** how much Ace eat on a daily basis, plus it’s not only Ace’s appetite Thatch had to worry about. His brother had to make sure he cooked enough food to serve over a thousand members including a walking black-hole and have some left over in order for their black-hole to snack on in case his brother is hungry in the middle of the night.

 

So for Sanji’s warning to not underestimate Straw Hat Luffy’s appetite is insulting to a chef whom had been doing his job way longer than ten years.

 

Marco knew that Sanji’s words didn’t have any heat behind them and that the blond chef wasn’t even trying to insult or anger Thatch, but Marco kept this information quiet to himself because his brother would have thought that he is siding with the rookie chef and blow things up till Oyaji had to step in and be the voice of reason for the both of them.

 

The second person to get into trouble would be their green-haired swordsman; Roronoa Zoro, whom had gotten lost while searching for the toilet. When all of them finally realize that Zoro had been missing for a few hours, they organized a search party **_on their ship_** , only to find the swordsman wondering around in the lowest deck where all of their smaller ships are held. Marco still doesn’t have a single clue on how Zoro could lose his sense of direction when the deck is slightly visible from the toilet (not to mention that most of his siblings are gathered on the deck at that point of time) and how Zoro could walk down at least two flights of stairs and not realizing that he is getting further and further away from the deck. That’s the moment when Nami; Straw Hat’s Navigator, decided to tell them that Zoro had zero sense of direction.

 

(He had to tell Izo to create some signs to be hanged in the hallway, giving directions to the rooms where the Straw Hat crew frequently visits. Marco had to force Izo to ‘magically’ prepare and finish all of the signs in one single night and his brother hadn’t been too happy with him till he had asked Izo if he would rather spend one night creating those signs or spend God knows how many times in a single day organizing a search party for Zoro. Oyaji whom had been there listening to this conversation just laughed at them.)

 

The third person to get into trouble would be Nami whom had came across all of his siblings; scattered into groups, gambling in the dining room, she had somehow gotten involved and managed to win every single penny from all of his siblings’ allowances and savings. With all of his siblings taking turns to gamble against the crafty Navigator while the others cheering for their own; threatening or begging them to get back their money, the scene Marco walked into (when he went into the dining room to tell everyone to get their asses back in gear and head back to their station) was that his siblings were accusing Nami of cheating –even if they couldn’t prove it- and wanted their money back from her. Marco had to use his First Mate’s voice and forced all of his siblings back to their station and of course he had to blacklist Nami from any games that involved money.

 

Really it made Marco wondered how in the World did the rookie crew even survived for as long as they did to make it into the New World, or did the crew prayed to a certain God in order to protect them? Because if the rookie crew actually prayed to a God, Marco would like to know the name and start praying himself since he knows how much trouble his own family could get into and they needed all of the blessing they need if Oyaji and he isn’t there to help them wipe up the mess they made.

 

That’s why Marco didn’t go on high alert when he sees and heard one of his many sibling rushing towards Oyaji’s throne waving his arms around and screaming like a mad-man, he couldn’t hold back his sign since Marco truly thought and believe that one of the Straw Hat crew had gotten into trouble once again and his brother is either coming to him to stop the fight that is about to break out or he is blowing things up again.

 

Oyaji seems to have come to the same conclusion as Marco did due to the words that Oyaji whispered that were meant for his ears, “Don’t be too hard on them son.”

 

“That will depend on what kind of trouble they had gotten themselves into, if it is something stupid and caused a lot of paperwork for me, I **_WILL_** give them a piece of my mind yoi.” Marco answered before heading off to meet his brother in the middle.

 

“Oyaji, there’s an unmarked boat heading in our direction!”

 

That sentence had snapped everyone out of their day-dreaming and slacking into their serious mode in mere seconds. “You didn’t see a Jolly Roger?” Oyaji asks.

 

“The boat doesn’t have one!”

 

“And how many members could you see on the boat?”

 

“I could only see one person on board. However the boat is so tiny that it wouldn’t fit more than five person max. What should we do Oyaji?” All of his children turned to him; awaiting his orders.

 

Thinking about the best course of action they could take right now, Whitebeard isn’t too worried about the sudden appearance of the boat. Unless the Marines had gotten some screw lose in their head that they are willing to send one of their member out to collect information about them, he would do something. Actually he hope that this is one of the Marine’s insane plan since the fight could help his children to release the tension and anger, “Prepare for battle but don’t attack until they do and let them board the ship if they wish to have a conversation with me.” He ordered.

 

All of his children shouted out their affirmative before rushing around to get ready and to repeat his orders to their other siblings who weren’t on the deck to hear his orders, “You don’t want to send me out to check yoi?” Marco asked.

 

Shaking his head, “There’s no need for you to do that. Even if those people wanted to attack us, they won’t be able to win against our number.”

 

Marco looked at Oyaji with suspicious, “There’s something more to this yoi.”

 

Whitebeard could only chuckle at his son’s sharp perspective, “If this ends in a fight, it would be a good outlet for the anger everyone’s feeling. Even if the fight doesn’t happen now, some fools will cross our path soon.”

 

“Clever yoi, but since we don’t know **_when_** we will come across some foolish rookies let’s hope that Ace will crack first.” Marco pointed out.

 

“What’s going on?”

 

Turning their heads to the side, Marco and Whitebeard should have expected that all of the noises and everyone’s rapid movement would have attracted Luffy’s attention, “It’s nothing much, there’s just a boat that is approaching our ship.” Marco answered once the other rookie crew is within hearing range.

 

Luffy tilted his head to the side, “People are coming here for a fight?”

 

“We aren’t sure if they are looking for a fight yet, they might just want to talk to me.” Whitebeard is the one who answered the question this time.

 

Pouting at the answer, “But that’s boring.” Luffy whined.

 

“Everything’s always boring to you if it doesn’t end in a fight.” Nami berated, raising one of her hand to gently slap Luffy at the back of his head.

 

Being the rubber-man that he is, Luffy doesn’t feel the pain at all, “Hey, parties are never boring!”

 

Rolling her eyes at her Captain’s answer, “Of course, what else besides fighting would get your attention?”

 

Whitebeard’s lips tipped up in a smile, “All of you are welcomed to stay on the deck however do leave the fight to all of my children.”

 

The dead silence and sudden on-slaughter of tension in the air took Luffy’s attention away from the question that is at the tip of his tongue, shifting around; Luffy couldn’t find a position that would give him a clear view of what is going to happen.

 

Shaking his head, “Bare with it yoi, if you weren’t fast enough to get the best sit in the house, you won’t be able to view anything. That’s one of the rule we had placed here.” Marco whispered out, preventing Luffy’s loud complains to break the tension. The Whitebeard pirates doesn’t really need the tension to work in their favor; by applying pressure on those rookies who believed they could take down the Strongest Man in the World when they are still wet behind the ears, but it does show their united front and shows people that they weren’t someone to be messed with, “Oyaji told you to leave the fight to us, he meant it yoi. Everyone’s nerves are on edge and they needed the fight to release it yoi that is if this ‘meeting’ becomes a fight.”

 

“Why would all of you be on edge? Is it because we’re travelling with all of you?” Nami asked.

 

Shaking his head, “It’s because of Ace’s stubbornness yoi.”

 

Raising one of her eyebrow, Nami crossed her arms in front of her chest, “I thought you said that you’re willing to wait for Ace no matter how long it will take?”

 

Rolling his eyes, “I’m not the one who all of you should be worried about right now, it’s my other siblings who are on edge. Especially Izo yoi, he is well known by everyone for being impatience and will do anything and everything in his power to get what he wants.” Marco informed them. Hoping that his warnings would give all of them a heads up so they could keep an eye on his cross-dressing brother, with his latest rejection (he didn’t want to use any dirty means to force Ace to spill the beans) and how Izo had been giving him the stinky eyes for the past few days, Marco didn’t need anyone to tell him that Izo hadn’t been too pleased with him.

 

Before Robin could say anything about this, a voice had taken everyone’s attention.

 

“Sir, I apologize for my sudden arrival. I would love to give you a heads up about my plans here, sadly none of my brothers picked up their Den Den Mushi when I called them.”

 

Leaning against the back-rest of his throne, “What are you plans with us?” Whitebeard asked.

 

“I’m not here to harm anyone sir, I just wanted to know the welfare of your Second Division Commander; Ace.”

 

Raising one of his eyebrow, “And why would you want to know the welfare of my child?” Whitebeard asked.

 

Whitebeard never really cared about the gigantic target had been painted on his back due to the lies and rumors other people created and spread, he had outlived the expectant and average lifespan of a pirate. Even his best friend/enemy; Roger, had died almost 20 years ago. Through-out his years of accepting outcast as his children, watching his family grow larger and larger until they were forced to build another ship because his beloved Moby couldn’t hold more than1’400 members, witnessing his children’s death (be it during battle, undetected poison or illness or even in an accident), and Whitebeard had already achieved his dream of having a ‘family’. He didn’t really need any more time; all of his children are strong enough to take care of themselves and their reputation would keep them safe, although his children wouldn’t agree to this point.

 

However he does have a soft spot for all of them and for as long as he could live, Whitebeard would do everything and anything to keep all of them safe even if it meant sacrificing his life to make sure that all his children could escape from the battlefield alive.

 

“Sir, I really meant no harm, I’m just worried about Ace and if you would allow me, I wish to meet him for a short while.”

 

Frowning at the request, “Do you really think I would allow a stranger to meet with my son?” Whitebeard growled out, his patience is wearing thin as this meeting dragged on.

 

“I’ll let you know that this **_stranger_** had met and known Ace way **_longer_** than anyone of you.”

 

Everyone reared back in shock; this **person** knew Ace longer than anyone of them did? That’s when everyone remembered that Ace had only recently joined them, but their youngest had fitted in among the rest so well that most of them had forgotten about this fact.

 

Once Luffy heard that sentence, he had gotten interested and pulled himself up onto the mash; away from the crowd of people, to get a proper view of the unexpected guest. Seeing the familiar blue top-hat, Luffy immediately knew who had decided to visit the crew that his older brother belonged to.

 

“Oi, Giant-mustache, you don’t have to worry about Sabo!” Luffy shouted out before dropping down onto the deck.

 

Ignoring the nickname of the rookie Captain had given to the Strongest Man in the World, “Luffy, you know this person?” Whitebeard asks; never taking his eye off the person named Sabo.

 

“Ya, he’s our brother.” Luffy answered as he stares straight at Whitebeard.

 

“Then why didn’t you tell us earlier?” Izo huffed out.

 

“How can I tell you guys when all of you are blocking my view?”

 

Sabo cut in before Izo could get another word in, “You shouldn’t waste your breath fighting against Luffy since you won’t be able to win unless you see any sort of physical violence.”

 

“Sabo, how do you know that Ace is back with Giant-mustache?” Luffy asks as he skipped to his brother’s side.

 

“I tried contacting Ace and when he didn’t pick up his Den Den Mushi, I tried calling you only to experience the same thing. Then I started digging around for information, only to find that you guys have been travelling alongside with the Whitebeard crew so I used the Vivre card Ace gave me to locate all of you.” Sabo answered, “So what in the world happened? Was Ace found out by Whitebeard?”

 

Luffy shakes his head, “We believed that it’s time for him to stop running away from his problems.”

 

Both of Sabo’s eyebrows shot up in his hairline in disbelieve, “So you forced Ace back to Whitebeard?”

 

Luffy could only shrug his shoulders, “If we didn’t force him, there’s no way Ace will listen to us and return back.”

 

“That… Sounds like what Ace would do.” Sabo agreed; shoulder slumping down slightly, “I believe that Ace isn’t too happy with you and the rest of your crew because they helped you?”

 

Nodding his head, “He didn’t even want to talk to me anymore.” Sadness rolled off Luffy in waves, “Ne Sabo, what I did was correct right? I didn’t want Ace to go through the loneliness like the time before the both of us met him, but Ace is stubborn. If we didn’t use force, Ace will never do anything.” Luffy asked; he had to ask Sabo about this if not the guilt is going to eat him up from the inside.

 

Seeing how worried and guilty their youngest brother is, Sabo’s vision flared white with the rarely felt anger at their oldest brother.

 

Yes, it’s true that their youngest is an idiot who trust people way too easily and would follow stranger back to their house as long as they offer him some meat, causing countless of headaches and panic attacks for the both of them when they had been younger. However their youngest has the heart of gold and is willing to help people when they are in trouble, doing everything he could do to help those people and wouldn’t even expect anything in return. Ace should know this fact, but his stubbornness didn’t want to accept the fact that their youngest is worried about him and is just trying to help him.

 

“Luffy, you don’t have to worry so much. Let me go and have a talk with Ace and everything will return back to normal.” Sabo give his brightest smile to cover up the dark thoughts that is in his mind.

 

Taking a good look at his older brother, “You’re going to scold Ace.” Luffy pouted.

 

“Since I don’t want to smack him around like some rag doll in front of his family members, I could only settle for a firm lecture plus I might be able to wake him up.” Shrugging his shoulders, Sabo didn’t bother to hide his plan once it’s out in the open.

 

“You don’t have to worry about anything Straw-Hat, I’m sure that Ace will soon realize that you just wanted the best for him yoi.” Marco answered as he moved in closer to the brothers. “Sabo is it? I could show you the way to Ace’s room.” The tension had dispersed as soon as everyone knew that Sabo isn’t a threat to them or Ace.

 

“Thank you First Division Commander, I would appreciate it.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

** After a week: **

 

Despite his best efforts, Sabo wasn’t able to get through Ace’s head with his words.

 

And with their oldest brother still stubbornly refusing to speak with anyone; including him, Sabo didn’t felt right to leave this situation for the Whitebeard pirates and Luffy to handle therefore he had decided to call Dragon to see if his boss is willing to give them a break. Thank goodness Dragon is willing to listen and understanding his need for leaving his work right now and the rest of his nakamas are willing to cover both his work and shift until this problem is solved. Of course he will need to pay them back for all of their help; he knows that Hack and Kola will demand him to pay them back.

 

After everyone in the Whitebeard crew learnt about his relationship with both Ace and Luffy, all of them accepted him as one of their own without any questions raised. Warning him about the meeting they have in a few more hours to talk about Ace, asking him about his opinion about the latest plan they had came up with and basically asking him about their childhood since Ace didn’t reveal too much about it to them.

 

Of course Sabo didn’t reveal too much about Ace’s past, he just told everyone who is interest about the troubles all three of them got into and how most of it was caused by Luffy. He didn’t touch on the heritage and parents topic because he knows that not everyone will accept the fact that Ace is Gol. D. Roger’s son who is also Whitebeard’s rival and enemy.

 

When none of their plans seems to be working, everyone is nearly at their wits end. Luffy had even asked him (once they are in the privacy of their room) if they should reveal the truth to the Whitebeard pirates, Robin had stopped them, telling them to wait for one more week before they reveal as she really wanted Ace to be the one who reveal the truth to his own family.

 

And the one week period is coming to a close, yet their brother is still refusing to talk to anyone causing both the Straw Hat crew and Sabo to become slightly more fidgety as each day passes and it’s something that the Whitebeard pirates had noticed.

 

Ace is really leaving them with no other choice but to reveal everything for him and it’s something which they hated to do. Being a member of the Revolutionary Army, Sabo knew how important it is to keep quiet about any sort of information until they either had the permission of the person to use it or it’s finally time for them to reveal the things that people had been trying so hard to hide. And Luffy had been taught by the both of them to keep important secrets; especially about Ace’s heritage.

 

As all of them gathered together to discuss which day would be the best day to call for a meeting with the Commanders and Whitebeard, they heard commotion up on deck which had gained everyone’s attention. “We should head up and see what it’s about. If the Whitebeard pirates are experiencing an attack, we could help them.” Robin said which everyone agreed.

 

Unlike the time when Sabo had suddenly appeared, everyone seems to be more frazzled than usual and that doesn’t sits well with all of them.

 

“What’s going on?” Sabo asks as soon as they got closer to the Captain’s throne where Whitebeard and Marco are.

 

“Red-Hair is heading our way yoi.” Marco answered, keeping his eyes on the ship that is heading in their direction, “While the both of us have an understanding where we won’t attack each other on sight but Red-Hair and Oyaji would sometimes get into a fight over what they were talking about yoi. So the rest are getting ready for that.”

 

“Shanks can’t come! I promised that I will meet him once I become a great pirate and I haven’t reached that point yet!” Luffy shouted out.

 

Izo who had been near-by and heard what Luffy said, “Why don’t you hide in one of the room below deck?”

 

“But I want to know what is going on!” Luffy whined.

 

Haruta pulled out the baby Den Den Mushi that he carries around with him, “Here, I’ll use another one to call you so you can hear what is going on deck when you’re hiding in your room.”

 

“Oh~ you’re so clever! I’ll head down now!” Luffy grabbed the snail before hightailing out from their sight.

 

Robin turned her head towards Marco and Whitebeard, “What is the real reason why Red-Hair Shanks coming here?”

 

Shrugging his shoulders, “He might be here for just a simple talk with Oyaji or he might have some important information that he overheard and wanted to share with us yoi, we don’t really know until he board our ship.” Marco answered, “I would like all of you to keep quiet when Red-Hair and Oyaji are talking to one another.”

 

The Straw Hat crew and Sabo didn’t really need the warning to know that they shouldn’t be speaking when the two Yonkos are talking to one another, they aren’t on their ship right now and the Captain of his crew is Whitebeard, all they could do is to just stay at the side and listen to what is going on, only speaking when they were given the permission to do so.

 

However they couldn’t say the same for Luffy.

 

Sometimes the brat doesn’t care about those kinds of things or didn’t care about filtering his mouth and just do whatever the hell he wants and likes. Often getting all of them into trouble; Sabo could confirm this, they might need to warn Marco about this but before they could say anything, Shanks had boarded Moby Dick.

 

“Brat, what did you come here for?” Whitebeard asked his voice breaking the tensed silence in the air.

 

Pulling the gigantic barrel filled to the brim with the best sake Shanks could find, “I’ve heard some news from Rayleigh-san.” He replied with a sing-song voice. Setting the barrel in front of him, I want to celebrate the fact that you had taken down the man who has been attacking your crew and this is my gift for you.”

 

Whitebeard would never refuse sake and had taken it to have a taste himself, the Red-Hair brat had never brought him any disgusting tasting sake before but that also meant that there is something else which the brat wanted to know or talk about. And Whitebeard wouldn’t want the brat to hide anything from him or his family, “Spill it out brat, you’re far too young to think that you’re able to hide anything from me.”

 

Having his hidden motive of his visit exposed, the care-free smile disappears from Shanks’ face, “I want to know the reason why the Straw Hat crew is sailing alongside with you.” Using his Captain/Yonko voice, Shanks asks his question.

 

Thinking about the choices of revealing the truth to Red-Hair or hide it, Whitebeard knew that it’s best to just come out with the truth. After all the brat did helped them by pointing out what he had witness about Teach’s monthly ‘adventures’ and Red-Hair was also the one who brought all of Teach’s paperwork back to them so they could find out what he had planned.

 

“Straw Hat helped us by bringing Ace back.”

 

Shanks sat up straighter when he heard the information, “Ace is back? Where is he? Why don’t I see him out on the deck?” he asked, heading swinging wildly from side to side to catch a glimpse of his ex-Captain’s son. “And why would Luffy and his crew sail by your side if they had already returned Ace back to you?”

 

Sighing, “Ace went on a silent strike; he didn’t want to reveal the truth or even talk to his brothers. The Straw Hat crew just wanted to make sure that they are physically there when Ace finally reveals the truth to us.” Whitebeard answered.

 

Shanks’ eyebrow rose when he heard what Whitebeard just said, “Well… At least I know where his stubbornness came from.” He muttered out; barely loud for anyone but him to hear.

 

“What did you said yoi?”

 

Quickly shaking his head, Shanks didn’t want to answer that question. If Ace hadn’t told his family members; people who he trust with his life and even willing to give his life for, he will not be the one who break the news about the fire-brat’s heritage. “I’m guessing that using Luffy doesn’t work?” Shanks ask instead.

 

“No, I’m afraid that by helping us to restrain my son had left them in his bad-looks and Ace isn’t talk to anyone of them.”

 

Shanks could only hum back; well this information confirmed what he had suspected about Ace inheriting Rouge’s power of being able to see into the future (the secret that only Rayleigh-san, Buggy and he knew). There’s no doubt in Shanks’ mind that Luffy and the others knew about Ace’s power; from the short amount of time he had interacted with the brat he knew that Ace wouldn’t hide anything from his brothers and keep them in the dark, he wondered if he should head in to have a talk with Ace himself.

 

“Would you mind if I talk to Ace for a while?” Shanks ask for permission.

 

Everyone turned skeptic eyes on him, as if they couldn’t believe that Shanks is able to change Ace’s mind about speaking to all of them.

 

 _“Shanks, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”_ Luffy’s familiar voice floated out from none-where.

 

“Anchor, where are you!” Shanks exclaimed out in excitement, turning his head around again to see if he is able to see the kid that he had taken under his wings during his vacation in the West Blue.

 

_“Oh, remember the promise that we made? I promised that I will search and meet you once I become a strong pirate, I’m not that strong yet so I used the Den Den Mushi to talk to you and keep our promise.”_

Pouting lightly, “But this situation doesn’t count, because I am here to find the old man and not you.”

 

The snail shakes his head to imitate Luffy, _“That can’t do Shanks, but back to the main topic. If you talk to Ace, I’m afraid that he will also stop talking to you. That’s what Ace had done to Sabo.”_

“Even Sabo is here?” Shanks ask, “Wait, Ace really stopped talking to the both of you?”

 

_“Ya, Ace stopped talking to me and my crew because we are the one who had handed him back to Whitebeard and Sabo because of siding with us.”_

Thinking about what Luffy had just said, Shanks wondered if he is able to change Ace’s mind. “Well, it wouldn’t harm me if I try talking to Ace right?” Shanks ask out loud.

 

“If you’re mentally prepared for the consequences, you could go and have a talk with my son.” As soon as Whitebeard said this, the rest of the Whitebeard crew minus Marco started shouting their disagreement with this arrangement.

 

Slamming the bottom of his bisento onto the deck, Whitebeard managed to shut all of his children up, “We have exhausted every single idea that we could come up with and none of it is effective,” Whitebeard started, “what harm would it do if the brat tried talking to Ace?” he asks and when no one answers him, Whitebeard continued, “What if the brat was able to get through Ace’s fears and worries?” The silence in the air seems to be the answer that Whitebeard is looking for, “If the brat believes that he is able to change Ace’s mind, I wouldn’t mind him trying.”

 

Being lead down to the room where Ace is being held in, Marco; who had volunteered to show him the way, didn’t say a single thing during the short walk until they reached the door. When Marco touched the handle of the door, he hesitated for a while as if he is afraid of something.

 

Shanks didn’t hesitate to rest his remaining hand on Marco’s shoulder, “Don’t worry, I’ll try my best to change Ace’s mindset.” He comforted Marco as much as he could.

 

Shaking his head, “I’m not worried about you falling yoi,” Marco answered, “I’m just worried that Ace wouldn’t want to even try talking or listening to you.”

 

That’s a reasonable fear, “Well, I’ll talk about something first before tackling the main topic.”

 

Marco only nodded his head, “I’ll be waiting outside here yoi.”

 

Parking himself into the opposite corner of where Ace had backed himself into, Shanks might not be as observant as Benn is but he knew what to look out for. And what he is witnessing now isn’t anything good at all.

 

The slightly glossy look in Ace’s eyes, how his ex-captain’s son is curled up into a tight ball and how Ace’s arms are tightly wrapped around his legs where his knees are pulled up tight to his chest told Shanks so much more than what the Whitebeard had shared with him.

 

Shanks really don’t know how all of the Whitebeard pirates or even Luffy and Sabo could have missed those obvious signs in front of them. Did they even come inside here to check on Ace’s condition?

 

Rubbing his temple, Shanks is kind of lost at what he should do. Maybe he should make Marco go and fetch Benn for him, his First Mate is always better at handling this kind of situation than him plus it doesn’t matter that much if he makes Whitebeard’s First Division Commander to do some work for him right?

 

After all they are the ones who had caused Ace to withdraw and couldn’t handle Ace when he is like this.

 

Okay, he is slightly biased in his judgment. He couldn’t put all of the blame on the Whitebeard pirates since Anchor and his crews are the ones who had forced Ace to return back to the Whitebeard pirates.

 

Making up his mind pretty quickly, Shanks slowly make his way closer to where Ace is; he didn’t want to spook the kid any more, gently patting Ace on his head, “Hold on for a while longer fire-cracker, I’ll be bringing help here.” Shanks whispered out before telling Marco who he needed.

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

Softly and quickly bringing Benn up to date, Shanks didn’t really need to say much since Benn could already connect everything together himself.

 

“This isn’t good.” Benn grumbled to himself.

 

Shanks nodded his head to agree with what Benn had just said, “I just don’t understand how anyone could have missed all of these signals.” Messing up his hair, “It’s as if they couldn’t accept Ace’s rejection and didn’t bother to check on him at all.”

 

Benn didn’t agree or disagree with what Shanks just pointed out, his mind working full speed to try and figure out the best route they could take right now before Ace went further into himself and nothing could be done to solve this situation. “Do you think the Whitebeard pirates would allow us to bring Ace to our ship and sail with us for a while?”

 

Turning his attention back to his First Mate, “You have a plan?” Shanks ask, wanting to know the details of Benn’s plan.

 

“I’ll tell you about it later on,” Benn cut in before Shanks could demand for it, “go and ask Whitebeard if he would give us the permission to take care of Ace and sail with us for a while.”

 

No one had been happy when Shanks brought up the suggestion Benn made, surprisingly Newgate wasn’t the one who is the strongest protestor against the plan –it’s the Commanders, the Straw Hat crew and Sabo who are-. It did take a little bit of convincing, more like a verbal smack-down from Shanks before Newgate’s decision over-ruled his crew’s objection.

 

The thing that matters the most right now is that Ace is on their ship and care, they would have to undo the ‘damages’ done and heal the brat as much as they could.

 

Benn knew that it wouldn’t be easy to heal the kid. He **knew** about it when the brat went searching for them after bringing his crew into the New World, in order to **_thank_** them for saving Luffy’s life. At that the time, Benn could sense something draw brewing within the child who had to be an adult too fast and too soon.

 

Don’t get him wrong, it isn’t the same kind of darkness he felt from all of those bastards who did whatever the hell they want just because they are pirates. No, it’s something different.

 

It’s the same darkness Shanks had when he talks about his ex-Captain, the same darkness when Shanks finally heard the devastating news about what happened to Rouge after spending nearly a year trying to search for her.

 

A darkness; which Benn knew now, that is created from guilt, pain and fears. And in any serious cases, the darkness would actually grow larger and stronger, turning into a ‘black-hole’ within the person. A ‘black-hole’ that devours every emotion that a normal person should have and feel, causing numbness and emptiness for the person until he or she had enough and when that time comes, it would always end with a bad news.

 

Shanks had gone through it before, and it had gotten so bad that Benn had to order everyone to turn their ship around and head to the West Blue. The weakest Blue where they didn’t have to worry about being attacked by Kaido or Big Mom and where they could handle those fools who believe could take them down, the weakest yet calmest Blue so they could take all of the time they needed to help Shanks, take all the time they needed for Shanks to fight off the darkness and heal from it. (Thankfully Shanks was able to fight it off before their Captain take any drastic actions.)

 

And that’s why it’s so important for them to take Ace off of Newgate’s ship and care. Now that the first step is done, thank God Shanks had the mindset to tell Yasopp to prepare a room for Ace that the brat will use and stay in during the months where Ace will stay with them for his ‘treatment, he will have to worry about their next step. That is to assure Ace that they are here to help him, that they will not repeat whatever Luffy and his crew had done, and that they are here to listen to what he has to say.

 

Of course Benn wouldn’t be the one who do the talking this time; his relationship with Ace isn’t that close that he could anything like that without overstepping any boundaries, Shanks will be the one who is doing all of the hard work this time.

 

“Benn, would you mind telling us your plan right now? Why did you want to bring Ace onto our ship? Not that I am against it.” Shanks asked while they are on the deck, gaining everyone’s attention.

 

“Ace is running away from reality because he is forced by Luffy and his crew to go back to Newgate, the only way we could bring him back and help him is to take him away from the place that he doesn’t want to be in and try talking to him.” Benn answered easily, “Showing him that we are here to help him and that we will not be repeating what Luffy had done, once we have Ace’s trust, Shanks will talk to Ace and find out what makes Ace so repulsive at the thought of returning back to Newgate’s crew.”

 

“That sounds like a good plan but why am I the one who is supposed to talk to Ace? Everyone here knows that you’re better in the talking department than I am.” Shanks asked.

 

Benn rolled his eyes up into the sky as if praying to the Gods for more patience since he had to explain something so simple, “My relationship with Ace isn’t as close as yours, and I might be stepping over some boundaries if I tried talking to Ace.”

 

“What if the plan doesn’t work?” Lucky Roo asked.

 

Benn shrugged his shoulders, “Then we will think of another plan that _might_ work.”

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

The progression with Ace had been slow but it is working.

 

The stunt Luffy and his crew had done must have triggered something dark deep within Ace’s mind, that slowed down the timeline Benn had estimated in his mind. The only good thing he could think about is that no one had complained about the slowness and that Ace is finally slowly and starting to trust and opening up to a small handful of them.

 

With Shanks doing most of the talking had been the perfect move in Benn’s plan.

 

All of them knew about the hatred Ace have for Rogers –the rumors and lies the Government fed to the public about Shanks’ old Captain had given Ace the wrong mindset about his father. The fact that this child who is already self-conscious about his heritage had went into a bar full of drunkard to ask them what would they do if they found out Roger had a son didn’t help in the situation, while it might not be a good idea to bring up Roger when Ace is mentally in such a dark place but Shanks had somehow made it work.

 

Doing the unimaginable by changing the fire-brat’s mindset about his father (by telling him that everything the News Coo had written about Rogers are nothing but lies that were spoon fed to them by the World Government to either cover up their mistakes or when they needed someone else to be the scapegoat), it helped that Shanks had shared more light on what he knows and remembered about Rouge.

 

That didn’t mean Shanks immediately dived into any topics that he knew were still sensitive at this point.

 

They had to take their time, kind of like interacting with a feral animal. They had to earn the trust first, repeatedly showing the animal that they could be trusted and that they would **never** harm it before they could move on to picking up the animal.

 

It’s the same thing with Ace, they had to gain his trust first before they could touch on anything that is related to Newgate or even bringing up his crew, and when Ace finally showed the signs that he trusted them; even if it means a small handful of them, with his life that’s when they could tackle anything regarding Newgate.

 

Benn knew that the day where Shanks could talk about Newgate is coming soon. He had seen Ace trusting Yasopp to look after his unprotected back when they encountered an attack from some stupid Marines who believed they were strong enough to take them down last week. Shanks had even came up to discuss his plans to him, while Benn had been certain that they could start talking about Newgate, but there is a small part in him that feared for the worst.

 

What if Ace’s condition reverted back when Shanks brought up Newgate, Newgate’s crew or even Marco?

 

If it did happen, who shall be the one who will be taking on this heavy burden where one wrong move would and could destroy everything they had done? And how could they explain the situation to the crew that had placed all of their hopes in them?

 

“You’re stressing too much,” Yasopp piped up from behind Benn, “I could hear your thoughts from the other side of the deck.”

 

Benn couldn’t help but roll his eyes, “And if I don’t think and worry this much, God knows what kind of trouble all of us will be getting into due to Shanks’ stupid plans.”

 

Yasopp and Lucky Roo; who had joined them, laughed at what he just said, “So what are you worried about right now?”

 

Raising one of his eyebrows, “What do you think could make me this stress right now?” Benn asked them.

 

“You really should reserve this sassiness for Shanks and not use it against us.” Yasopp joked for a while before turning serious once again, “What about the fire-brat that got you this stressed out?”

 

Sighing out, “I’m just worried that this isn’t the time to be talking about Newgate with the brat.” Benn revealed; he didn’t need to hide the truth away from Yasopp and Lucky Roo. “What if the brat shies away from us when we brought it up this soon? What if the brat thought that we were tired of helping him and wanted him to return back to Newgate as soon as possible?” He could still go on with all of the negative outcomes his mind had produced; thankfully he was brought out from that rant when Lucky Roo placed one of his hands on his shoulder.

 

“You’re looking at the negative point a little bit too hard and too much Benn.” Lucky Roo whispered out. Gently pushing Benn to steer their stressed out First Mate away from the deck, out in the open where their other crew members could see their First Mate stressing out in front of all of them.

 

“It’s part of my job because we all know that no one else will.” Benn answered, moving in the direction where Lucky Roo wanted to head in. His statement managed to get a few chuckles out of the other two; breaking the tension that he had unknowingly created with his short rant.

 

When they settle down and made themselves comfortable in Benn’s room, Yasopp is the one who start up the conversation, “From what I have seen and remembered the brat’s progression had been going pretty well right?”

 

Benn nodded his head, “It is the brat finally trusts a small handful of us. I don’t know if you noticed it but the latest attack we experienced from the Marines, the brat had trusted you to protect his back.” With the reaction Benn received from both Yasopp and Lucky Roo; their eyes widen in disbelieve, it seems like the both of them didn’t notice it. “Shanks had noticed it too, that’s why the both of us had been planning to have the dreaded talk with the brat soon.”

 

Lucky Roo tilted his head to the side slightly, “Doesn’t that makes things easier?” he asked, “Worse comes to worse, Yasopp could pick up wherever Shanks and you left off.”

 

“I wish things are always this easy.” Benn muttered out, rubbing his forehead, “The both of you do realize that the burden of this whole situation isn’t that light right? Not only would Shanks get on your backs, we would need to watch out for Newgate and maybe the Phoenix’s if something went wrong and we were unable to finish the part of our bargain.”

 

“We don’t mind having Shanks on our back since we could always sick you on him if Captain becomes too annoying.” Yasopp laugh lightly, “Plus if we couldn’t keep our part of the bargain, we could always tell Newgate the truth. At least the Whitebeard will know to keep their distance to prevent setting Ace off once again.”

 

“That’s the thing, they wouldn’t be happy if we tell them this news.” Benn answered, shoulders slumping down slightly, “The only reason they were willing to let the brat leave their ship is because Shanks had promised them that they will return Ace back to them.”

 

Shrugging his shoulders, “We could always handle them. It’s not like Shanks will allow the Whitebeard pirates to do anything bad to us.” Lucky Roo pointed out.

 

Benn shake his head, “I am not worried about the battle against Newgate. It’s Kaido and Big Mom that I am worried about, all of us know that the both of them will take the change and do something big in the middle of the fight to take both of us down.”

 

Realization entered Yasopp and Lucky Roo’s face, “Oh, I didn’t think of that yet.” Yasopp answered for the both of them, “Anyway, I still don’t think that Newgate would order a war with us just because we aren’t able to ‘heal’ Ace.”

 

Rubbing his forehead, “I hope so.”

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first reason why this chapter took this long is because I had some really bad writers' block. This chapter really took a lot out of me as nothing that I wrote seems and feel right to me. I don't remember how many times I had to rewrite everything from the start.
> 
> When things finally started to feel right, I started working full-time at a newly opened flora shop (the shop deal with funeral stuffs more than hand bouquets). Everything was hectic, I had to work as an assistant to our only full-time florist, working as an admin, buying other essential items that we needed, cleaning the shop, ordering of flowers and other stuffs which left me both mentally and physically exhausted every single day. When we finally hired another florist to lighten my workload, our first florist quit working for us, so I'm still handling everything hat I could. To make things worst, this new florist kept on staying way pass his working hours (to earn the OT pay), boss me around and leaving me to take care of the plants and flowers (changing waters, preparing the flowers that arrived in our shop which will take the whole damned day). And I am lagging behind in all of my paperwork. Thank God our bosses are very understanding in the situation that I am in, extending the deadline for me to finish all of the paperwork which I am still slowly doing my best to catch up with.
> 
> Recently we have hired another full-time florist, but had never deal with any arrangements for funerals so ya, I have to head in to help her for a few hours at least she's nicer than the bossy florist.
> 
> I didn't want anyone of you to wait any longer since I have no idea when I would be able to finish this whole thing, so I uploaded this chapter even though I really wanted to finish this story. I will try to upload as soon as I could but I had to finish all of the paperwork that I've fallen behind first before I could continue writing.
> 
> I'm really sorry for making all of you wait. And I hope that all of you enjoyed reading this chapter. Comments and feedback are most welcomed!


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Not beta-read, high percentage of mistakes here and there!!

 

 

 

 

After spending at least four hours discussing with one another, Shanks and Benn had finally decided on the date where the both of them would have the ‘talk’ with Ace (why does it sounds like they are going to have a sex education talk with their only child who is heading into their teenage phrase?). While they weren’t so sure where the conversation might lead to or what kind of reactions they would be experiencing from the fire-brat, they had both mentally prepared themselves for the worst.

 

Shanks and Benn are both so worried that they went ahead and inform both Yasopp and Lucky Roo about what they are about to do and the date they had set on. If the 'talk' really did screw everything up, the both of them would have to pick up the broken pieces of Ace's trust after all of the hard work they had put in.

 

Of course, Yasopp and Lucky Roo had tried to lessen the negativity that surrounds their Captain and First Mate by trying to lighten the mood by cracking some light jokes, but it didn’t seem to work or help.

 

Yasopp and Lucky Roo might not be an experienced yet uncertified counselor or an expert on how to mentally and physically prepare for some serious discussion at least they **_knew_** how being worried and tensed would not help in any kind of situations.

 

In the end, Lucky Roo had to slap both their Captain and First Mate at the back of their head so that they would change the energy they are releasing before heading into the room that Yasopp had set aside for Ace’s use. A situation Shanks usually finds himself in due to his idiotic actions or because of something stupid he had said, and the first experience for their First Mate.

 

“I’m going to do more damage to the both of you if this doesn’t stop.” Lucky Roo warned, hoping that his threat would be able to make his Captain and First Mate forget about their fears and worries.

 

“The both of you are ridiculous.” Yasopp pointed out. When he receives twin looks of confusion he decided to elaborate for their sake, “You,” pointing at Shanks, “are one of the four Yonko who is feared by everyone **_including_** the Marines, World Government, and the Celestial Dragons.” Turning his head in Benn’s direction, “And you’re the feared First Mate to Red Hair Shanks, even fucking Kizaru is afraid of you yet instead of being the threatening, deadly and feared pirates the both of you are, you’re as skittish as a kitten who had been let out of the den by their mother to see the World for the very first time.”

 

With Lucky Roo agreeing with Yasopp’s statement, Shanks opened his mouth to rebuke in order to gain back some of his dignity. Yasopp prevented that from happening by holding up one of his hand.

 

“I know and understood the reason why the both of you are this terrified of having this talk, however, try putting yourself in Ace’s shoes for now.” Yasopp continued, “With how skittish the both of you are, Ace would believe that the both of you are done with helping him and is about to throw him off of our ship.”

 

“We’re not-“

 

“ ** _I know_**.” Yasopp cut Shanks off, “But that’s not what Ace would think if the both of you head into his room looking like **_that_** and requested a private talk with him.” Realization drawn on both Shanks’ and Benn’s face, it seems like Yasopp and Lucky Roo managed to get their points through their Captain and First Mate’s thick skull, “Now that the both of you finally understood the point that the both of us have been trying to make, do something about it.”

 

All four of them had wasted half an hour before Yasopp and Lucky Roo are satisfied with the energy the other two are releasing before allow Shanks and Benn to head into Ace’s room, but it’s half an hour well spent. As Yasopp and Lucky Roo watched their Captain and First Mate disappear behind the closed door, they quietly wished them good luck with what they are able to do.

 

“Do you think they will be able to handle it?” Lucky Roo asked, ignoring the drumstick that he is holding in his hand; a sight that is only seen in threatening situations.

 

Shrugging his shoulders to answer his friend’s question, “I can’t be certain how this will work out since it largely depends on Ace’s reaction. We could only hope that Shanks’ good luck of being able to get out of impossible situations would help them out and that Benn could control the flow of the conversation.”

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just as Yasopp and Lucky Roo predicted, Ace started fidgeting the moment Shanks had said that they need to have a private talk with him.

 

Shanks really couldn’t guess how this whole thing will turn out; unlike all of those times when he got his crew and best friends into life-threatening situations that he **knew** he is strong enough to get all of them out alive, but when has he turned his back on impossible situations?

 

Never did and never will. And having a bloody sensitive talk with his ex-captain's son doesn’t change his view and belief.

 

“Ace, stop making up conclusion when you haven’t heard what we’re about to say.” Benn is the first person to break the silence.

 

With how fast and forceful Ace had snapped his head up to look at Benn, Shanks feared that their fire-brat might hurt his neck or worse, snap his neck. Goosebumps appeared through-out Shanks’ body with that thought; remembered how helpless he had been while he watched his Captain being executed by the Marines and how that execution had been aired like an entertainment programme. The tensed body posture and the fear in his eyes that Ace was unable to hide away from them broke Shanks’ heart; it’s as if their fire-brat is physically and mentally preparing him to be beaten by _them_.

 

Just what the hell did their fire-brat have to go through during his childhood to express this kind of reaction?

 

With his heart still bleeding for the child in front of him; who would have become his nephew if his Captain is still alive, Shanks decided to spare the child from any more stress and kick-start the conversation, “We are **_NOT_** kicking you off the ship brat, so get that out of your head.” Ignoring the flinch he receives from Ace, “We’re just here to talk about the Old Man.”

 

If Shanks hadn’t know how reluctant Ace is to talk about Old Man Newgate, he would have been worried about how Ace’s complexion paled even further than what normal humans should be able to do –with devil fruit or not- and maybe screaming his heads off for their doctor to come inside here to check on their fire-brat. But he knows everything, that’s why he isn’t freaking his heads off right now.

 

Looking at the defensive pose Ace had unknowingly taken, “W-What do you want me to talk about?”

 

Shanks couldn’t help but mentally curse himself.

 

For taking this long to realize the fact that his Captain have given himself up to protect all of them, for taking this long to remember Rouge’s existence or even remember the fact that she could have been pregnant with his Captain’s child, for taking that long to find her and even giving up on searching for his Captain’s child once he learns about Rouge’s death and that Garp had taken their child.

 

Shanks **_knew_** that his Captain and Rouge must be rolling in their graves by all of his actions.

 

Holding up his only arm left, “We aren’t here to force you to reveal anything to us Ace. If you don’t want to answer those questions now, it’s okay. We won’t force you to give us an answer, however, we would like some explanation to make sense of your repulse to the Whitebeard pirates.” Shanks tried calming their fire-brat down but it backfired on him.

 

“What **_more_** do all of you want to know? There isn’t much explanation which I could give the both of you about this.”

 

From the tone that Ace had used to answer his question made Shanks wanted to kick himself in the face for even ** _bringing_** this **sore** topic up when he knew that Ace’s trust is pretty brittle now and that any wrong move will break whatever small amount of trust they managed to gain.

 

While Shanks is having a mental breakdown and trying to mentally kick himself in the face, Benn had stepped up to take over the conversation, “We just wanted **you** to know that the Pirate King actually _trusted_ Newgate quite a bit before he was executed.”

 

Benn knew that the sudden change in topic had confused the hell out of Ace and Shanks due to the looks that the both of them are giving him. Mentally rolling his eyes at this scene, Benn couldn’t help but wondered why in the World had he choose to follow a Captain who doesn’t think about the consequences of his actions or even **_uses his brain for once_**.

 

Giving a silent prayer to whatever God that is out there to give him the patience to deal with two **idiots** , “Newgate _knew_ about Rouge’s power.” Benn revealed, hoping that this would be simple enough for the both of them to understand.

 

Unglamorously splattering out, “ ** _W-What?!_** ” Ace’s expression turned from horror to blankness before it finally settled to anger, “Did that **_bastard_** revealed a _secret_ that **isn’t his?!** ” He snarled out. The anger in Ace’s voice informed Benn that maybe he should have taken the time to do the long explanation instead of the quick and edited version of what he wanted to say.

 

Shanks quickly shakes his head, “No Ace, Roger had personally asked Rouge for permission to reveal her power to the Old Man.” Quickly stepping forward, Shanks knew how fast this ship is sinking right now, “And I am not lying as I was there when Roger asked, I was one of the few witnesses there besides Rayleigh-san. I could call him and tell him to reconfirm with you.”

 

“ **NO!** ” Ace’s scream is so sudden that Shanks had actually taken one step back in shock.

 

“What’s wrong? Why didn’t you want me to call Rayleigh-san? He is **_loyal_** to Captain which means you could also trust him.” Shanks asked, worried that Ace had the wrong idea about Rayleigh-san. The Pirate King’s First Mate might not have been appointed as their mentor but Rayleigh-san had taken both Buggy and him under his wings once the First Mate finally came to the conclusion that the both of them are not just ‘playing pirates’ like all of the other youngsters out there. Being the responsible adult that he is, Rayleigh-san had taught them the ropes of being a pirate and once he found out that the both of them wanted to create their own crew in the future, had taught what Buggy and he needed to know for being the Captain of their own crew.

 

While Shanks agree that Rayleigh-san’s loyalty to the Pirate King is so strong that even after their Captain’s death, Rayleigh-san will never join another crew or bow down and serve another Captain, but he is _certain_ that the ex-First Mate of the Pirate King will be willing to extend a helping hand to the scattered crew (if they ever asked for it) and would never betray anyone of them which of course includes the last remaining person who is blood-related to their respected yet already-dead Captain.

 

Plus he did update Rayleigh-san about the adventures he had whenever his crew visits him when they have to go pass Sabaody Archipelago, and the fact that he remembers telling Rayleigh-san about meeting Ace in the snowy mountain could have triggered some forgotten memories that only the ex-First Mate knows (for example like the name that Roger and Rouge had picked out for their unborn child). That wouldn’t surprise Shanks at all since it’s not a hidden fact that his ex-Captain and ex-First Mate are best friends; Rayleigh-san is even Roger’s Best Man during his wedding to Rouge.

 

That’s why Shanks needed to know if Rayleigh-san had gone out to search for Ace and met their fire-brat, he needed to know if Rayleigh-san had done or said anything that could have offended their fiery fire-brat. And if the ex-First Mate did do something that had offended their fire-brat then Shanks or Benn would need to do some damage control over here, doing what they could do to regain some of Ace’s trust for Rayleigh-san back.

 

Ace shakes his head, “Rayleigh was _that man’s_ First Mate, there’s no way where I could trust someone who is loyal to _him_ , they will **lie** about anything that they say.” He huffed out, seemly annoyed with his answer.

 

 Benn raised one of his eyebrows, “Well Shanks is pretty loyal to Rogers too, so why would you trust and listen to Shanks yet would not do the same thing to Rayleigh?” he asked.

 

"The both of you had already proven to me that you could be trusted."

 

This sentence makes absolutely no sense to both Shanks and Benn. Hell the both of them didn’t even remember or know what the both of them did to gain Ace’s trust. And it must have shown on their faces as Ace had been nice enough to explain it further.

 

“The both of you were the only ones who had stood by my decision that I shouldn’t return back to the Old Man’s crew, the both of you were the only ones who noticed what in the World is going through my head within a few seconds and actually _understood_ what I had to mentally fight against, the both of you are the only ones who were willing to stand up against my Old Man and his whole crew and bring me out of the place that had been doing nothing but triggering whatever the hell that is causing me to become this bad, the both of you are the ones who had warned the rest of your crew about the forbidden territory that they shouldn’t talk about in front of me, the both of you are the ones who had made yourselves as the buffer whenever one of your crew members speaks or asked about how long I would be staying with you guys.” Raising one of his eyebrows, “So please tell me how I could not trust the both of you?”

 

The two older men were rendered speechless by the points that Ace had just pointed out to them. They were pretty certain that Ace was too deep in his mental space that their fire-brat would never remember or even understood what was going on around him when they finally met each other after their first and last meeting on the snowy mountains.

 

But it seems like their assumptions were wrong.

 

And that meant that Ace could have heard whatever the hell the Old Man’s crew members were talking or asking about Ace. If they had said anything bad (hard to imagine something like that happening but there’s a small possibility of that happening), there’s no way the two of them could help anyone. The only person who could do something or anything would be the Old Man himself (because the both of them are kind-hearted people who only wanted the very best for their fire-brat)  but even being the Strongest Man in the World would have a hard time trying to salvage the broken trust between nakamas.

 

Being in different crews; doesn’t matter if the two crews are supposed to be ‘friendly’ with one another, the Old Man would never ask or wanted their help in something that he truly believed he should be able to handle and salvage (because the Old Man is stubborn as hell in his old age, not that he will ever know about this little fact).

 

“Back to the topic,” Benn changed the conversation flow, “why were you that repulsive to the Whitebeard pirates?” Seeing the smugness bleeding out of Ace, Benn feared that their fire-brat will ever answer their million dollar question.

 

After nearly 10 minutes of silence, Shanks and Benn are both ready to give up on getting an answer when Ace made the first move.

 

“I am not repulsive to my family members.”

 

Barely able to hold back the snort from bursting out of him, Shanks **knew** that Benn would have disapproved of his snort and would let him know by shoving one of his elbows into the fleshy portion of his body; between his ribcage and hip bone. That is something that Shanks didn’t really want to experience right now.

 

Of course, the logical part of his brain pointed out that Ace wouldn’t be too happy with his snort, without any doubt their fire-brat would have taken the snort as an insult thus reversing all of the hard work they had done to gain his trust.

 

Everyone would have **_KILLED_** him and that is after Benn had beaten him up black and blue.

 

Benn’s deep sigh pulled Shanks out of his thoughts, “I’m sorry for saying this, but that’s the worst come back that I’ve ever heard in my entire life. And mind you, Shanks is my Captain.”

 

When Shanks’ splattering gained no reaction from the other two, he couldn’t help but pout at the blunt and rude comment from his very own First Mate. Really, he **needs** to do something soon that could have helped him gain back the respect he deserves from all of his crew members, especially his very own First Mate.

 

“How about we forget about what you’ve just said and try that again. And maybe this time, try telling us the truth?”

 

The two older men could see the conflicting emotions that passed through Ace’s face, yet it changes so fast that none of them were able to really catch a glimpse of what Ace is feeling right now.

 

“It’s just… I didn’t want to cause any more trouble for my family members.” Ace hesitated for a moment here before he continued, “I know what my mother had to go through when her powers were leaked to the World; Gramps had sat me down and warn me about this when we both first learn that I had inherited those powers from her, and I didn’t want every single person in the World to target them.”

 

“Wait, let me get this straight,” Shanks cut in before Benn could stop him, “you’re worried that the Marines and World Government is going to paint an even larger target on the Old Man and his crew?” If looks could kill, Shanks would have been six feet under from the glare that Benn just shoots him. Shanks knew that he shouldn’t be using this tone on Ace, however, even a thick-headed person like him could smell a bullshit excuse from a mile away.

 

And if Shanks wanted to help their fire-brat, he would need to know the truth and not some made-up bullshit excuse that is thrown at him to get him off of Ace’s back. Therefore Ace needed to _hear_ his disbelief.

 

Their fire-brat _needed_ to know that the excuse is so badly made that it’s the worst excuse Shanks had ever heard in his entire life (and that is saying a lot since he had Gol. D. Roger as his Captain when the man is still alive). _Needed_ their fire-brat to know that they are here to help him through whatever doubts he has in himself so that their fire-brat could return back to the place that their fire-brat could live the rest of his life in happiness.

 

Don’t get him wrong, Shanks **_loved_** to have his ex-captain's son here on his crew so that he could look after the brat and protect him to make up for the mistakes that he had made when he had been younger and powerless; the failure to change his Captain’s mind and how he had forgotten about Rouge and that he was too late to do anything to help her, however being on his crew would never provide the comfort their fire-brat experienced while living on the Old Man’s ship.

 

“Ace, I don’t want to point this out,” Benn pinched his forehead to get rid of the headache he is experiencing, “but do you realize just how ridiculous your reason sounded?”

 

When Ace avoided any eye contact with the two older men, Benn continued, “Look if you do not want to tell us the truth, that’s okay and we won’t force you to tell us right now. But we are **trying** everything we could to help you. Deep down in your heart, you _knew_ that being a member on this ship is something that you yearn for, and you won’t be as comfortable living on this ship with us like it used to when you were living on the Moby Dick. That’s why we **NEEDED** to know the truth so that we could help you.”

 

Suffering through an intense 10 minutes of silence, Benn and Shanks were more than ready to give up and leave the room until Ace had made eye contact with them with a determined look.

 

That’s when the two older men knew that their efforts were not wasted.

 

“I’m just… Still kind of traumatized by what **_might_** and **_could_** have happened.” Ace started slowly, trying to form the words that could clearly explain what he is worried about, “The moment Gramps and I found out about my powers, hearing the origins of where the power came from and the explanation Gramps gave me; about how dangerous it would be for the people around me if my powers were leaked out and how I could and would be hunted down like a fucking prey, I started covering every single inch of my body as much as I could. Hoping that by doing so, it would have cut down the chances of me activating those powers. While it’s nearly impossible to do so when I am living in the jungles of Dawn Island without standing or looking like some sort of a freak, I still tried my best, always retreating back before anyone could touch my skin and go even as far as to stay out of skin contact with my brothers.”

 

The explanation given by Ace hadn’t answer any of their questions and it didn’t really make much of a sense to both Shanks and Benn now but they both know that by giving their fire-brat all the time he needed to explain himself, they will be getting their answer sooner or later. Therefore the both of them kept quiet.

 

“Gramps’ insistent warnings had frightened me. I’ve heard what Mom had to go through when her powers were leaked by her relatives, I’ve heard about what happened to those who had helped her to escape from both the Marines or Bounty Hunters hired by the Celestial Dragons and World Government. And it just frightens me.” The fear in Ace’s eyes made Shanks wanted to punch _something_ or maybe _someone_ to get rid of that look, “I **don’t want** to bring harm to Makino when she had shown nothing but kindness to me. She took me under her wings; someone who isn’t blood related to her, yet she took the time to tailor my clothes so that it would fit when I am growing up, took the time to feed my bottomless stomach till I am truly full from all the food she stuffed into me without taking a single cent, took the time to teach me how to read, write and do simple math so that I could survive in this World. She was and is the one who had shown me what ‘Mother love’ looks and feels like. I don’t want **anything to happen to her**.” Taking in a deep breath here, “I might not experience the extent of horror and fear that Mom had to go through, but I’ve been chased and hunted down before, experienced what it felt like to lose someone important to me even if it was just the future that I’ve seen with my powers, but I’ve **experienced** the horror.”

 

Clenching his fist to stop himself from doing anything reckless, Shanks heard about the ‘experience’ their fire-brat is talking about. Luffy had briefly spoken about it (through the Den Den Mushi because their anchor is being stubborn about the promise they made with one another) and Benn had demanded to know more about it after they had separated from Moby Dick with Ace on their ship. He had been furious with the BlueJam Pirates, especially when he **_KNEW_** that the crew still existed due to the frequent updates from his informant. The anger Shanks felt never really went away even after Sabo had updated them about what he had done to the BlueJam Pirates. How he wished that he had been the one who ended the lives of those pathetic beings.

 

“The number of people whom I wanted to protect was both small and little in amount when I had been younger. The number of people whom I could truly trust with my life at that point in time was even lesser than what. However everything changed when I leave Dawn Island to start my journey as a pirate, I’ve gained so many people who will look after my unguarded back, people who were more than willing to sacrifice their lives to make sure that I get to live to see another day. I had been terrified. Worried that something would happen to the Spades crew if anyone found out and leaked my connection to _that man_. The days I spent being a Captain of the Spades crew has been both the most awesome day of my life and the most stressful point. I am being surrounded by people who I could and should trust however I had to keep my guard up, keep the wall that I had built up to make sure that no one will ever know about my powers and my heritage.”

 

Shanks and Benn could clearly remember their first meeting, how their fire-brat had been the only person to walk into the cave (the other Spades crew are left to wait outside the entrance) they had taken refuge to escape the snow storm. How tensed their fire-brat had been when he walked in to meet one of the ex-member of the Pirate King’s crew, how they could see the exhaustion and weariness deep within Ace’s eyes.

 

Now they understood.

 

“Things had been tough when I was the Captain of the Spades crew, so I don’t really know what I was thinking when I had accepted Oyaji’s invitation to become one of his sons.” Ace continued on, “IF I had been so stress about keeping sensitive information from my own _small_ crew, it’s even worst having to do the same thing to Oyaji and all of my brothers and sisters whom I am supposed to trust with my life. Yet somehow I managed to do it, and I was even happy with where I am. Everything had been going well for so long that I had let my guard down. Even until now, I still can’t decide if it is a good or a bad thing yet. I saw how Greed could easily tear through trust and bonds that had been forged through years like putting a hot knife through butter. I saw what could have happened to my Family; I saw the terror, the pain and the devastation they had to go through because of who I am and what I am able to do. I saw my own death, and the pain Marco, Luffy, and Sabo had to go through, I saw that my stubbornness is the cause of Oyaji’s death. That is why I had decided to live the rest of my life on an isolated island that would never be found by anyone, I had to get away from the spotlight even if it meant giving up my freedom and career as a pirate; something that I love, to hide away, and to stop my stubbornness, powers, and heritage from harming anyone else. But Luffy and his crew had forced me to return back home, the place where I saw the start of the nightmare, and the place where everyone lives on and I could still remember the expression on their face when the shit hits the fan. There’s no way where I could continue on with my life after what I’ve managed to see.”

 

A slightly frown managed to work its way out onto Benn’s face, and it’s not because of the large information that Ace had just dumped onto the both of them, there is just something that doesn’t feel right to them. It’s as if their fire-brat is still with-holding some information away from them. Placing his palm on one of Shanks’ shoulder, “I don’t think that that is all, am I correct?” Benn asked, stopping Shanks from saying anything to fill in the silence after Ace had stopped explaining.

 

Shock filtered through Ace’s face; it’s as if he hadn’t expected someone to see through his mask, before his expression settled on being defeated once again, one of his hands combed through his hair, “I’m not sure how I would handle everything after what happened and what I’ve managed to see.”

 

Tilting his head to the side, “I don’t understand.” Shanks started, “Shouldn’t you be relieved to see all of your family members are and still is alive and in good health? Even Thatch, the last update I’ve heard about him stated that he is doing well in his physiotherapy and that he would return back to both training and his work as a Head Chef in a few more weeks.”

 

“That’s not what I’m worried about!” Ace snapped, finally losing his temper at this whole situation, “I’m worried about how I would react if my heritage and my powers will cause another betrayal to happen!”

 

The stunned silence settled in the air for a few minutes before Shanks and Benn broke it at the same time, “What?” Benn’s voice might have been calmer than Shanks’ however it did manage to voice out his bewilderment to their fire-brat.

 

“What do you even mean by that? Why would you be worried that your heritage and powers be known by everyone?” Shanks continued, his remaining arm waving around to voice his confusion.

 

“Oyaji never really **like** it when one of his children hides facts and truth away from one another, so he will want me to come out to the rest. And I really didn’t want to do that. I’ve somehow managed to stop one betrayal from happening, what if I am unable to stop the other one? Will everyone blame me because I didn’t want to use my powers even though I have better control over it than Mom? What if someone got killed in the next betrayal? What if all of my family members started blaming me? I won’t be able to handle all of that! And I don’t want Oyaji to go through a heart-break when I barely managed to stop the first one from happening!”

 

“Calm down kid,” Benn grumbled out, “I might not be close to the Whitebeard but I could figure out that he wouldn’t force any of his children to do something that they’re reluctant to do. So I’m sure if you tell him about it, he wouldn’t force you to come out to the rest of your family beside the Commanders.”

 

Shanks could see that Ace doesn’t believe a single thing that Benn had just told him and decided to bring forth his plan –something that he isn’t ashamed to admit that he had just made up a few seconds ago-, “How about this,” gaining two pairs of eyes, “I will go and ask for a meeting with the Old Man and tell him that wish to keep this information among them. However if the Old Man insisted that you reveal the truth to the rest of the crew, we will steal you away and do everything in our power to prevent the Whitebeard crew from ever laying their hands on you?”

 

As much as he wishes that he could walk out of the room and not listen to Ace’s rejection of his plan –which he knows that there’s a high chance of it happening- Shanks knew how important it is that he let Ace makes the decision.

 

Shanks might not be as smart as Benn and is dumber than the normal average people, but that doesn’t mean that he is stupid.

 

The actions of his urges would do nothing but make him lose all of the trust he managed to gain during those few months spent with their fire-brat and helping him fight against those ‘demons’. Plus if Ace did reject his idea, Benn is here to help him change their fire-brat’s mind.

 

The both of them will not let their fire-brat suffering anymore. They will not allow it.

 

“Are you sure that you’re willing to take on Oyaji if he requested me to reveal everything to my family members?” Ace asked in the softest voice had ever heard.

 

“Of course kid,” Benn answered for Shanks, “You’re one of us now and like the Whitebeards, we do not leave any of our men behind.”

 

“Even if it means starting a war with the crew of the Strongest Man in the World?”

 

“Even that”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Noting the commotion coming from their communications room, Lucky Roo and Yasopp headed over there to check on things and try their best to keep things in order while their Captain and First Mate are busy with something way more important; their fire-brat.

 

Pushing open the door to their communication room only to witness at least half of their team; the other half are resting, running around like headless chickens, “What’s going on here?” Yasopp asked, his usual laid-back attitude was shoved back to tackle this sudden problem that had popped out of none where.

 

Candy; one of their small handfuls of female crew members, changed the direction of where she was running to and headed towards him, “Yasopp-san,” she called out; breathless and sounded like she is a few seconds away from hyperventilating on them, “Marco the Phoenix from the Whitebeard is on the line right now!”

 

Slapping his forehead with one open palm, Yasopp wondered if their Captain’s shitty luck is contagious and that they had spent too much time around him.

 

“What’s the Phoenix demanding?” Lucky Roo decided to speak up while Yasopp is too busy mentally cursing Shanks’ shitty luck.

 

“He’s demanding to know the status of Fire-Fist Ace.” Candy swiftly answered.

 

“I need to hit Shanks at least once after he has finished his talk with Ace.” Yasopp deadpanned to Lucky Roo causing the fatter man to chuckle as softly as he could. Turning his attention back to the communications’ team, “Alright, someone pass me the Den Den Mushi. Let the both of us handle the Phoenix and all of you could go and have a break.”

 

“But-“

 

“There’s nothing for all of you to worry about. Lucky Roo and I are more than enough to handle the Phoenix.” Yasopp cut Candy off, he really didn’t have any spare time to give them any explanation or entertain them.

 

The Phoenix might be the second calmest and has the most patience pirate he had ever met; Benn being the very first one, however in situations regarding their fire-brat, the Phoenix will develop tunnel vision; forgetting everything except for their fire-brat. And that’s why Yasopp believed that he should answer the Phoenix’s demands about Ace’s status right now; Lord knows what crap the Phoenix will do if they do not answer them soon.

 

Ignoring the sceptical glances from their Communications Team as they quickly shuffled out of the room, Yasopp couldn’t help but huffed out in irritation. He knows that Benn is usually the person who is appointed to settle those kinds of problems however that doesn’t mean Lucky Roo and he would be clueless on how to deal with it (he could still remember the crash courses they received from Benn pretty clearly and having to go through that once is traumatizing enough. Thank you very much). Well, if they could settle the Phoenix without resorting to verbal death threats Yasopp could count it as a win and it would also show everyone that **_they weren’t fucking clueless_**.

 

“Let’s get this over and done with.” Lucky Roo nudged Yasopp’s back.

 

“Phoenix.” Yasopp called out as a greeting. There isn’t any need for him to state who he is, the Whitebeards have enough contact with the oldest crew members to recognize them by voice alone.

 

 _“Yasopp,”_ Marco the Phoenix paused here for a while, _“did I scare off your Communications Team yoi?”_

 

Rolling his eyes, “Turned the whole lot of them straight into headless chickens Phoenix, what did you _say_ to them?”

 

 _“I called for an update on Ace yoi, but all they could tell me is that they didn’t have the necessary information to give me any form of update.”_ Marco **dared** to accuse them of withholding information from them.

 

“That’s because we don’t have the necessary information to give you Phoenix.” Yasopp barked out, “We spent those past few months trying to gain some sort of trust from the brat because Lord knows that none of you had **bothered** to really check up on his mental state when Anchor and his crew **_forced_** him to return to Moby Dick.”

 

_“What-“_

 

“Don’t try to bullshit your way out of this Phoenix. You **_knew_** that Ace has a hard time trusting anyone, hell all of us managed to figure this out one way or another during those past few months. And I understand the fact that all of you were more relieved than worried when Ace was forced to return back to Moby due to Anchor and his crew however to _ignore_ Ace’s mental state for the few weeks that he had returned is something which I do **_not_** understand. Care to explain that to me?”

 

While Yasopp is ranting to Marco, Lucky Roo is just standing at the side watching this show in front of him. It’s a well known knowledge by the Red-Hair crew that Yasopp could rant or lecture longer than anyone else on the ship, and that everyone could only do their best to not stop on Yasopp’s landmine to spare themselves the pain of sitting through his lecture.

 

“Yasopp, here’s no need for you to lecture Marco now.” Shanks interrupted before Yasopp could continue speaking what is on his mind.

 

With the Den Den Mushi facing Yasopp, Marco couldn’t see the fake smile that had appeared on Shanks’ face, “That’s true, but would you rather waste your breath lecturing only one person or would you like to lecture the whole lot of them at once?”

 

“Do you mean..?”

 

“Yes, we’re going to have a meeting with the Old Man and his Commanders.”

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two bloody months.
> 
> Holy God, I took TWO BLOODY MONTHS to write this chapter. My update time is getting worse. I'm so sorry for taking this long but things aren't really going well right now. I'll spare you guys from all of the rant, but I'm trying to write as much as I could during all of my spare time.
> 
> Thank you guys for all of the Kudos that I've received and all of the comments about what you guys think. Please forgive me for not replying to any comments now (even if they make my day way better than they were) but do know that I DO READ THEM! 
> 
> Hope all of you enjoy reading this chapter!!!

**Author's Note:**

> Finally a new story!!!
> 
> I have like four other ideas that popped up, one of them is fully planned and everything written down while the other three are work in process aaaannnnddddd this is one of the story that is planned halfway. I'll apologize in advance, the uploading time will take a while.
> 
> By the way, did I say how much I hate the additional tag portion? I never know what to put over there and will never know what to put.


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